By Abiola Olawale
Sunrise Power which is the firm in the middle of the $2.35bn Mambilla Power Contract deal, is said to be facing serious crisis at the ongoing arbitration proceedings at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) concerning the Mambilla hydropower project.
This is as reports reveal that witnesses listed by Sunrise who are expected to appear before the ICC all failed to show up to testify testimony on details surrounding a 2003 alleged agreement to construct a said 3,050MW plant in Mambilla, Taraba state.
Reports monitored by The New Diplomat indicate that several witnesses purportedly line up to speak to the issues were conspicuously absent while panel sittings lasted. Indeed, the sittings were said to have lasted up until Saturday, January 18, while hearings from interested and eye-witness accounts started on Monday, January 20, and ended on Thursday, January 23.
Curiously, reports monitored by The New Diplomat show that witnesses listed by Sunrise to appear before the ICC failed to turn up, an action that has triggered serious crisis within Sunrise.
According to the reports, Olu Agunloye, the minister of power who fraudulently awarded the contract to Sunrise in 2003 without any authorization from either President Olusegun Obasanjo or the Federal Executive Council, did not show up.
He is currently facing charges by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for his role in the messy deal.
Similarly, Michael Aondoakaa, a former attorney-general of the federation (AGF) who was also listed as a witness by Sunrise, was not available to give a testimony.
Repirts say a potential third key witness, who is a Senegalese lady allegedly offered to Abubakar Malami, immediate past AGF, allegedly to pressurize to sign the 2020 settlement agreement, did not also turn up to speak for Sunrise.
In the meantime, from the Nigerian side, former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, as well as former ministers Babatunde Fashola and Suleiman Adamu, appeared before the IC to provide their testimonies as interested and eye- witnesses.
Obasanjo reporyedly testified on Wednesday while Buhari who took his turn on Thursday has returned to Nigeria.
Recall that the Mambilla deal began on October 10, 2017 after Sunrise commenced arbitration against Nigeria at the ICC International Court of Arbitration seeking a $2.354 billion award for “breach of contract” in relation to a 2003 agreement to construct a said 3,050MW plant in Mambilla, Taraba state, on a “build, operate and transfer” basis valued at $6 billion.
In the second phased arbitration, the Sunrise is seeking a $400 million settlement, being the terms of the Nigerian government’s failure to honor the settlement agreement both parties purportedly reached in 2020.
