Paris arbitration calls Mambilla deal a product of corruption — Premium Times Nigeria

An arbitration tribunal of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris has found a settlement agreement concerning the Mambilla hydropower project in Nigeria to be unenforceable. According to an opinion column published by Premium Times Nigeria, the tribunal concluded that the agreement was the result of corruption and was contrary to Nigeria's public policy.

A deal worth hundreds of millions of dollars

The author of the column writes that in January 2020, Nigeria's then Attorney General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami and the minister responsible for energy, Saleh Mamman, initialled a $200 million settlement agreement with Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited. Two months later, the amount was increased to $400 million, with daily interest accruing at a rate of 10%.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari refused to pay the bill. In 2021, the company's promoter, Leno Adesanya, referred the dispute to arbitration at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. As stated in the column, if successful, he could have recovered $2.3 billion from Nigeria, while the costs of the proceedings exceeded $31 million.

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Arbitration findings

According to the author's account, the tribunal found that Malami and Mamman had no authority to enter into the agreement on Nigeria's behalf, so it did not bind the state. The publication also says that the arbitration pointed to Malami's actions that ran contrary to Nigeria's best interests.

According to the column, the dispute dates back to 2003. Then energy minister Olu Agunloye sent a letter awarding a contract to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited the day after President Olusegun Obasanjo requested that the relevant memorandum be withdrawn from a government meeting. The author claims that the tribunal found that the company lacked experience and expertise in hydropower.

The Mambilla project

The Mambilla hydropower project in Nigeria was conceived in 1972, and its initial concept envisaged generating nearly 4,000 MW of electricity. The column states that the final arbitration award is 619 pages long. The author believes that its findings could provide grounds for disciplinary proceedings against Malami as a lawyer.