How and Why Sunrise, Leno Lost in Paris By Garba Shehu

Garba Shehu

Former Senior Special Assistant Media and Publicity to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Garba Shehu, said yesterday that the litigation instituted against Nigeria by Sunrise Power and Transmission Company at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal in Paris was doomed from the outset.

Garba, who personally attended the January 15, 2025 sitting of the tribunal in the French capital, said it was clear from day one that Sunrise and its promoter Leno Adesanya “would lose this case following the failure of all the witnesses they invited, including, of course, a beautiful lady from Senegal allegedly providing comfort to one of their government contacts.”

The tribunal, in its verdict delivered last week, rejected a $2.35 billion claim and a separate $400 million settlement fee sought by Sunrise from the federal government on the Mambila Hydro Electric Power Project in Taraba State.

Garba recounted how President Bola Tinubu prevailed on two of his predecessors to testify for Nigeria in the legal battle. HireGrant Writers

He said the testimonies of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and the late Buhari as well as those of National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu and ex-Ministers, Engineer Sulaiman Adamu and Babatunde Fashola, at the tribunal went a long way in saving the day for Nigeria.

“The two past Presidents, alongside other key witnesses were prevailed upon by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rise to the occasion of defending the nation against fraudsters whose stock in trade was to bribe and get government contracts, only for them to use such projects to obtain huge sums of money as costs for settlement using arbitration. HireGrant Writers

“In the year before, the English Supreme Court saved Nigeria from the theft of USD 11 billion through similar schemes, and President Tinubu vowed ‘not again,’” he said.

The former president of the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) said he saw “the universe of corruption, falsehood, deceit and lies by Sunrise and its owners melt on the floor of Ritz Carlton Hotel’s meeting rooms.”

He added: “Documents placed before the tribunal by Nigeria included filed statements by Sunrise at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) that the company had no turnover in 2017, 2018 or 2019, and had total net declared assets of only N1,000,000 (one million naira).

“At the time they received the ‘award’, the financial position of the company was N318,685 on 3rd December, 2004 and N270,370 as of 31st December, 2005.

“A new minister wrote to Leno Adesanya of Sunrise to confirm the non-approval of the FEC on 3 September 2003 and therefore had no contract whatsoever with government.

“A new tender process was initiated and the contract was awarded to two Chinese companies, CGGC and CGC.

“At a later meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chinese leader, Xi Xiping, the Nigerian president requested funding by ChinaExim Bank of the Mambila project, and requested President Xi to nominate credible companies to execute the contract.

“President Xi gave an instant commitment of the Chinese government to promoting the project.

“Sunrise wahala began by demanding payment of (1) GBP 33 million as the costs that it had allegedly incurred ‘on preparation for the execution of the project’”; and (2) USD 1.2 billion, which allegedly represented 20% of the USD 6 billion estimated cost of the Project ‘as projected profit of our client [Sunrise] on the project.’

“Sunrise sought to prevent the Project from moving forward by taking the following steps: One, filing a claim at the Federal High Court against Nigeria’s Minister of Power, the Attorney-General of the Federation, CGGC, and CGC and two, they sought an order preventing any development of the Project except through Sunrise and, in the alternative, claimed the sum of USD 960 million in alleged damages.”

He said the litigation initiated by Sunrise held up progress on the project for many years.

“ChinaExim withheld funds – as would any lender – pending the resolution of the legal tussle,” he said.

“In order to move the Project forward, Nigeria entered into settlement discussions with Sunrise, CGGC, and CGC. The settlement discussions were inherited by the administration of President Buhari.

“In those discussions in 2012, the Federal Ministry of Power entered a ‘General Project Execution Agreement’ with Sunrise and Sinohydro (another Chinese contractor that Sunrise had involved) (the “GPEA”), an initial agreement with Sunrise relating to the Mambilla Project.

“On the 14th January, 2015, a letter was signed by the Federal Ministry of Power supposedly giving approval for Sunrise to be engaged as the local content partner on the Project.

“On 9 November 2019, a meeting was held between, on the one hand, Sunrise, represented by Mr. Adesanya, and, on the other, Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and the Minister of Water Resources in London.

“At that meeting, it was made clear to Mr. Adesanya/Sunrise that any settlement negotiated would, of course, depend on approval by the President.

“At this meeting, Mr. Adesanya offered to accept a figure of USD 500 million, and the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Water Resources – no doubt under pressure to settle the dispute so that the Project could proceed – made a counter-proposal of USD 100 million.

“After a series of meetings, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and the Ministers of Power, Finance and Water Resources agreed to propose the sum of USD 200 million as a full and final settlement of Sunrise’s claims, subject, understandably to approval of the President. This proposal was accepted by Sunrise.

“On 25 March 2020, a second document entitled ‘Addendum to the Term[s] of Settlement’ was signed between Sunrise and representative of Nigeria. Again, the document provides for a potential doubling of Nigeria’s liability by another USD 200 million in case of delayed payment.

“On 31 March, 2020, the ‘Terms of Settlement’ and ‘Addendum to the Term of Settlement’ were presented to President Buhari for the first time for his approval. Upon reviewing the documents, the President decided not to grant approval.

“In a hand-written and signed note dated 20 April 2020, the President withheld his approval for entry into these documents, on the basis that “FG [the Federal Government] hasn’t got USD 200m to pay [Sunrise]”.

“Despite repeated attempts, President Buhari wasn’t convinced that Nigeria should pay USD 200, or even higher to someone who did nothing but merely presented an unauthorized contract document.”

He pleaded with the federal government to reach out to the Chinese leader, to get him to fulfill his longstanding promise to fund the power project with a view to getting the project off the ground.

This, according to him, would serve the best interest of the nation and honour the memory of the late Buhari “whose heart was in the Mambila project until his death.”

The tribunal, in its verdict, detailed Adesanya’s confession of transferring $500,000 to Jennifer Douglas, an ex-wife of former vice president Atiku Abubakar in 2003; a few months before the purported award of the phantom contract to his company.

Although Adesanya claimed that the January 2003 transfer was part of a foreign-exchange transaction carried out for the former VP, the tribunal noted the “close connection in time between the moment the USD 500,000 payment was made to the wife of Vice-President Abubakar on 30 January 2003 and the alleged award of the BOT contract to Sunrise on 22 May 2003.”

It also said that Adesanya did not produce documents showing the underlying naira payment, the exchange rate applied, instructions from Atiku or his aides, correspondence concerning the transaction, or any record establishing its commercial purpose.

Atiku, in his reaction on the matter, said on Friday that the tribunal did not find him guilty of any offence as being insinuated by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Atiku accused the APC of distorting what transpired at the tribunal.

The ruling party had asked him to quit the 2027 presidential race which he is contesting on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

The tribunal also came down heavily on former Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister Abubakar Malami for what it called an inappropriate relationship between him and Adesanya.

It accused the former minister of effectively negotiating for the company rather than the federal government when he altered the terms of a proposed $200 million settlement that would have doubled Nigeria’s exposure to $400 million with interest accruing at 10 per cent per annum.