$5.8 Billion Mambilla Energy Project: ICC Verifies Sunrise's Legal and Beneficial Ownership of the Project

THE International Court of Arbitration administered by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, France, has upheld the legal and beneficial ownership of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL) in the 5.8 billion dollars from Mambilla.

Sunrise and its Chairman/CEO, Leno Adesanya, had been embroiled in an ongoing legal battle with the Federal Government of Nigeria over the illegal termination of the contract signed on May 22, 2003, but re-awarded to a Chinese company, Messrs. China Gezhouba Group Corporation/China Geo-Engineering Corporation (CGGC/CGC).

Specifically, Sunrise launched a series of legal challenges against the termination of the contract on May 28, 2007, resulting in a delay of 14 years, the new beneficiary being effectively prevented from starting the execution of the contract.

Following Sunrise's withdrawal from arbitration of its $500 million settlement agreement before the International Court of Arbitration in Paris in September 2021, the federal government's legal team, led by Mr. Supo Shasore and the foreign law firm White and Case, decided to invite Sunrise to return to the ICC claiming $1.6 million in legal fees because Sunrise withdrew the $500 million lawsuit.

Contrary to all allegations by government lawyers, the ICC in Paris on October 13 ruled against all objections of the Nigerian government and called for the adoption of the expedited arbitration procedure in the arbitration of $500 million settlement agreements.

The decision ordered that the procedure begin immediately. After an international competitive bidding process in early 2003, the 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.

The Sunrise consortium 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 company, Messrs. China Gezhouba Group Corporation/China Geo-Engineering Corporation (CGGC/CGC), in flagrant violation of Sunrise's BOT contract. In November 2007, Sunrise filed a petition with President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and the $1.46 billion EPC contract was terminated in 2009.

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On November 23, 2012, the 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, the government signed a $5.8 billion EPC contract with another Chinese consortium, despite numerous written warnings from the current Federation Attorney General at the Federal Ministry of Energy, Public Works and Housing in 2016 and 2017. comply with the GPEA contract with Sunrise. Sunrise filed for arbitration against the Nigerian state and Chinese consortium Sinohydro in 2018, seeking $2.3 billion in damages.

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

However, the federal government failed. Sunrise in September 2021 withdrew the $500 million settlement arbitration on the condition that the federal government financially commit to the project and respect its right as an exclusive local content partner, but the federal government does not again made no payments to the EPC. contractors and/or counterpart funds to China Eximbank.

While the federal government was unable to defend its failure to honor its agreements with Sunrise, the government did ask the ICC to order "Sunrise to produce certain information showing its true legal ownership and effectively".

The request, according to the government, was based on the allegation that there are Pandora documents suggesting that Mr. Leno Adesanya secretly transferred an interest in Sunrise to the family of Nigeria's former national security adviser , Mr. Sambo Dasuki.

This claim was contested by the claimant (Sunrise). In a decision dated October 13, 2022, the ICC said there was "insufficient sensitive evidence" provided by the Federal Government of Nigeria to prevent the case from proceeding.

According to the decision, a copy of which was obtained by the Nigerian Tribune, the ICC said: "We have duly noted all the elements mentioned in...