Details have emerged in the Mambilla hydropower project controversy how Femi Falana’s client Sunrise Power and Transmission Company promoted by Leno Adesanya used bribery in the form of money and women to try and get Nigerian officials to compromise in the Mambilla arbitration between the company and Nigeria.
In January, 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned former Minister of Power when the Mambilla hydropower contract was awarded to Sunrise Power, Olu Agunloye in court over allegations of fraud in the award of the contract in 2003 under the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Sunrise Power is in arbitration with Nigeria at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris, where it is demanding $2.3 billion in compensation for Nigeria’s ‘failure’ to honour the contract which was awarded by the former Minister of Power Olu Agunloye to Sunrise in 2003 despite the then federal executive council (FEC) having mandated the then-minister of power to step down the memo a day earlier.
Nigeria is alleging fraud and corruption of public officials involved in the original contract award and also in the subsequent settlement agreements reached between some officials of government on behalf of Nigeria and Sunrise in an attempt to settle the case out of court.
In the court filings before a federal High Court in the Federal Capital Territory, the EFCC also preferred some charges bordering on bribery and corruption against Leno Adesanya, the promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company, who is at large and has been declared wanted.
In one of the sworn affidavits in support of a motion on notice by Agunloye, the former power minister attached portions of the federal government’s defence in the Paris arbitration proceedings with Sunrise where the FG alleged that Leno Adesanya offered money and women to ministers in the Buhari administration in trying to secure favourable recommendations on the $6 billion Mambilla hydroelectric power project.
Nigeria in its defence at the arbitration panel had alleged that Adesanya made repeated attempts to exploit and fraudulently extract huge sums of money from the country “on false pretences”.
Nigeria’s defence team went further to say, “Mr. Adesanya repeatedly sought to undermine Nigeria’s defence of this Arbitration by all means possible without regard to legality. As detailed below, Mr. Adesanya attempted to bribe the former Minister of Water Resources, Mr. Suleiman Adamu, in the lead-up to the settlement meeting between Sunrise and Nigeria in London on 9 November 2019 by offering him money and women and sought to bribe the former Attorney General of Nigeria and Abubakar Malami, also with money and women, in order to take decisions favourable to Sunrise and influence Nigeria’s defence in this Arbitration.”
Agunloye also attached extracts of WhatsApp chats from November 2021 that the Nigerian team attached to their defence before the Paris Arbitration panel showing Adesanya allegedly offering women and money to two influential ministers in the last administration in exchange for help to use their position influence a lucrative settlement between Nigeria and Sunrise Power.
Nigeria contended in the document attached by Olu Agunloye that Falana’s client, Leno Adesanya is a man who fully understands how to game and take advantage of the weaknesses in the institutions of the Nigerian government to wrongfully procure contracts that his companies are incapable of executing in collusion with some government officials.
The Nigerian team further noted in the document shared by Agunloye that “Adesanya always colludes with key Government officials to obtain confidential Government documents, creates a semblance of credibility through document exchanges with Government officials, files claims against the Government, and then unlawfully seeks to pressure the Government to enter into settlement agreements with his companies in order to obtain a pay-out.”
“Adesanya has been successful in obtaining contracts and bringing about settlement negotiations with the Nigerian Government on many occasions in the past. He has a track record of questionable settlements and not contract delivery”, it further noted.
Nigeria revealed that Sunrise Power and Leno Adesanya succeeded in getting the former Minister of Power, Dr. Olu Agunloye, to issue Sunrise an award letter contrary to the decision of the Federal Executive Council chaired by the then Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
Adesanya according to the Nigerian filings, also succeeded in engineering another settlement negotiation leading to the signing of the Terms of Settlement and General Project Execution Agreement (“GPEA”) in 2012 between Sunrise and Nigeria and also a review in 2020 and almost succeeded in obtaining a pay-out from the Nigerian Government, but for the refusal of the Former President Muhammadu Buhari, to approve the settlement.
Adesanya it is gathered has also actively tried to interfere with and prevent EFCC’s investigation into his involvement as well as that of Sunrise in the Mambilla Project by contacting witnesses who were invited for interview either directly or through his proxies and using his Nigerian counsel, BA Law, to coordinate this Arbitration and the satellite court action filed in Nigeria to block EFCC’s investigation.
The attached documents also showed that the Nigerian team accused Adesanya of making payments to Dr. Olu Agunloye, the minister of Power who awarded the Mambilla contract to Sunrise despite no approval from FEC chaired by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Adesanya also allegedly made payments to senior government officials who were involved in the negotiation and signing of a memorandum of understanding titled General Project Execution Agreement (the “GPEA”) in 2012 during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, as well as a number of Government officials who were involved in the preparation and signing of the Terms of Settlement and Addendum to Terms of Settlement in 2020.
It is recalled that former President Muhammadu Buhari recently wrote to Lateef Fagbemi, Nigeria’s current Attorney-General dissociating himself from the $200 million settlement reached with Sunrise in 2020, maintaining that he did not authorise it.
In the letter Buhari said, “While I understood that my ministers of justice, power and water resources were approached by Sunrise and were engaging with various stakeholders that were involved in the project to resolve the issues blocking the project’s implementation, at no time did I specifically instruct them to enter into and conclude any settlement agreement with Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited.”
“Indeed, when the proposed settlement agreement and addendum were presented to me for my consideration and approval on 20th April 2020, I refused to approve the settlement deal because I was convinced that there was no basis for Sunrise’s claim”, Buhari maintained.