EFCC Probes $6bn Mambilla Power Project

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has launched an investigation into $6 billion Mambilla Power Project which is subject of legal tussle.

The minister of Power, Engr Abubakar Aliyu made this known while appearing before Senate Committee on Power to defend the 2023 budget when the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Gabriel Suswan raised concern over the situation of Mambilla Power Project.

The minister said the ministry has met with stakeholders and all issues of concern were currently being resolved, adding that the issue of litigation on the Mambilla power was hampering the project.

“Regarding Mambilla, we have met with stakeholders and we are resolving the situation. It has something to do with litigation, there is nothing going on as regarding moving to site.

“EFCC has stepped into the matter and we have given them information about it, we have given them history of Power Project, our lawyers have interfaced with the anti-graft agency. Unless we are able to pull out of litigation, we can’t do anything.

“I don’t think the investors will bring their money where there is encumbrance.”

Speaking on the project, Senator Suswan said that the project is a mirage as far as National Assembly is concerned because money has been budgeted year in year out and there is nothing on ground.

According to him, “to us in National Assembly, the Mambilla Power Project is a mirage, there is nothing to show for it despite the money that has been provided year in year out.

“It is clear that the Mambilla power project will not be able to start before the end of this administration.”

Federal Government awarded a $6 billion Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract to Sunrise Power and Transmission Co. Limited and its Chinese consortium partners on May 22, 2003.”

Sunrise consortium had secured $5.5 billion in Chinese Eximbank loans in 2005, while the Nigerian government, on May 28, 2007, signed a $1.46 billion civil works contract with the Chinese firm, Messrs China Gezhouba Group Corporation/China Geo-Engineering Corporation (CGGC/ CGC), in clear violation of Sunrise’s BOT contract. In November 2007, Sunrise filed a petition to then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the $1.46 billion EPC contract was terminated in 2009.

Nigerian government signed a General Project Execution Agreement (GOEA) with Sunrise and its Chinese consortium partners for the execution of the Mambilla hydropower project.

However, on November 12, 2017, government signed a $5.8 billion EPC contract with another Chinese Consortium, despite numerous written warnings from the current Attorney-General of the Federation to the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing in 2016 and 2017 to respect the GPEA contract with Sunrise. Sunrise resorted to arbitration against the Nigerian State and Sinohydro consortium of China in 2018, claiming $2.3 billion in damages.

With the intervention of the Chinese president, who sent a special envoy to President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2019, federal government and Sunrise signed a settlement agreement in January 2020 and this settlement was advised to both the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria and chairman of China Eximbank, who had made the settlement condition precedent to any loans for the Project.

However, the federal government defaulted.  Sunrise, in September 2021, withdrew the $500 million settlement arbitration on the condition that the federal government make a financial commitment towards the project and respects its right as the exclusive local content partner, but the federal government failed again to make any payments to the EPC contractors and/or the counterpart funds to China Eximbank.

While the federal government has been unable to defend its failure to honour its agreements to Sunrise, however, the government requested that the ICC should direct “that Sunrise produce certain information showing its true legal and beneficial ownership.”

The request, according to the government, was based on the allegation that there exists Pandora papers suggesting that  Leno Adesanya secretly transferred an interest in Sunrise to the family of Nigeria’s former National Security Adviser,  Sambo Dasuki.

This claim was objected to by the claimant (Sunrise). In a decision dated October 13, 2022, the ICC said there were no “sufficient sensitive elements” adduced by the federal government of Nigeria to prevent the matter from proceeding.