Nigeria: EFCC Probing $6bn Mambilla Power Project, Says Minister

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is currently investigating the $6bn Mambilla Power Project despite the legal tussle over it.

The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu made this known when he appeared before the Joint National Assembly Committee on Power to defend 2023 budget, after the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Gabriel Suswan raised concern over the situation of Mambilla Power Project.

The Minister said the Ministry had met with stakeholders and all issues of concern were currently being resolved.

He added that the issue of litigation on the Mambilla Power was hampering the project.

Aliyu said, “Regarding the Mambilla Project, 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 the 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 investor will bring their money where there is encumbrance.”

Speaking on the project, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Senator Gabriel Suswan, described the project as a mirage as far as the nation was concerned.

He lamented that money had been budgeted year in year out but there was nothing on ground to show for it.

Suswam said, “The Mambilla power project has become a mirage to us at the National Assembly and to Nigerians. Monies are provided year in, year out, but nothing is certain about Mambilla.

“The initial scope of the project was slightly about 3,000 megawatts. There were issues and we were told that it was going to be recouped. Even the re-scoping of the project has not been done.

“In essence, it means that there is no project that is on ground like Mambilla. It’s all about talks and lips service. That is why we are concerned about the money that is provided for consultancy and the money used for the training of staff that supposed to be utilised if Mambilla was in place.

“Why provide monies all the years when nothing actually is on ground?”

He, however, said his committee has directed the Minister of Power to ask the ministry’s permanent secretary and other desk officers to appear before it to explain how the yearly budgetary allocations for Mambila had been utilised.

He said, “Since 2017, monies have been provided for Mambila but nothing has done on the project despite the pressure we have been mounting on federal government from the National Assembly. “

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.

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).

This was in clear violation of Sunrise’s BOT contract.

In November 2007, Sunrise filed a petition to then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the $1.46bn EPC contract was terminated in 2009.

The federal 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 and Sunrise, in September 2021, withdrew the $500 million settlement arbitration on the condition that the federal government makes 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, 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 exist Pandora papers 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 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.

Sunday Aborisade

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