Mambilla: ICC Raises Questions Over $500,000 Payment to Atiku’s Former Wife

Mambilla: ICC Raises Questions Over $500,000 Payment to Atiku’s Former Wife

An International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration tribunal has raised questions over a $500,000 payment made to Jennifer Douglas, the then-wife of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, during the period when Sunrise Power and Transmission Company was pursuing the long-delayed Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project in Taraba State.

The payment, made on January 30, 2003, has become a major political issue after details emerged from the ICC’s final award in the arbitration between Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited and the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The tribunal heard that Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power, transferred the money through his offshore company, China Castle Investments Limited, into a United States bank account belonging to Douglas.

Adesanya told the tribunal that the payment was a foreign-exchange transaction carried out for Atiku, who was Vice-President at the time.

However, the three-member tribunal found that Sunrise and Adesanya had not provided sufficient documentary or independent witness evidence to support that explanation.

According to the tribunal’s findings, Adesanya did not produce records showing the underlying naira payment, the exchange rate used, instructions from Atiku or his aides, correspondence relating to the transaction or documents establishing its commercial purpose.

The tribunal also noted that neither Atiku nor Douglas provided witness statements or declarations supporting Adesanya’s explanation.

The timing of the transaction was another issue examined by the tribunal.

The $500,000 transfer was made less than four months before Sunrise was purportedly awarded a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract for the Mambilla project by then Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, on May 22, 2003.

The tribunal described the circumstances surrounding the payment as raising “significant red flags”, given its timing and the parties involved.

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However, the findings require an important distinction.

The ICC proceedings were an arbitration between Sunrise and the Federal Government, not a criminal trial of Atiku. The tribunal’s examination of the payment did not amount to a criminal conviction of the former Vice-President.

The tribunal also found no evidence in the arbitration record that Atiku had actually exercised his official duties in a manner that secured the Mambilla contract for Sunrise.

Atiku has rejected suggestions that the ICC tribunal found him guilty of corruption, challenging the All Progressives Congress (APC) to identify where the final award convicted him of receiving a $500,000 bribe, influencing the Mambilla contract or abusing his office.

Atiku, through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the APC was presenting allegations examined during the arbitration as though they constituted a corruption verdict against him.

He also argued that he was not a party to the arbitration proceedings and did not testify before the tribunal.

The controversy intensified after the APC Presidential Campaign Council, through its spokesman Dele Alake, called on Atiku to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race.

The campaign council accused the former Vice-President of compromising Nigeria’s interests over the Mambilla project and linked the $500,000 payment to the circumstances surrounding Sunrise’s pursuit of the contract.

The APC also alleged that Atiku and Agunloye worked together to facilitate the project despite objections to the proposed arrangement.

Those claims are political allegations by the APC and have been rejected by Atiku.

The ICC tribunal, meanwhile, examined the payment as part of a much broader dispute over the Mambilla project and the various transactions surrounding it.

The tribunal noted that Adesanya had been pursuing the Mambilla project for years and had interacted with senior Nigerian officials during the process.

Atiku’s role in the project also came under examination because he was Vice-President between 1999 and 2007 and was involved in government discussions concerning the proposed hydroelectric development.

The tribunal noted that Atiku led a Nigerian government delegation to Beijing in July 2002, with Adesanya among the participants.

During the visit, Nigeria and a Chinese state-owned company signed a memorandum of understanding relating to cooperation on major infrastructure projects, including the proposed Mambilla development.

The $500,000 transfer took place about six months later.

The tribunal also examined separate payments involving Agunloye.

According to the findings, three payments totalling about $15,000 were made between August and November 2019 to Agunloye through his aide, Jide Sotinrin.

The payments formed part of the wider corruption allegations examined in relation to the Mambilla dispute.

The project itself dates back to the early 2000s and has remained stalled for more than two decades.

Sunrise relied on a May 22, 2003 letter from Agunloye as evidence that it had been awarded a BOT contract to develop the project.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, however, disputed the validity of the arrangement and maintained that the Federal Government had not authorised the minister to commit Nigeria to the contract on the terms contained in the letter.

The dispute eventually moved into international arbitration.

Sunrise subsequently pursued billions of dollars in claims against Nigeria, arguing that the government had breached obligations associated with the Mambilla project.

In the latest ICC proceedings, the tribunal rejected Sunrise’s claims against Nigeria.

The company had sought $680 million in connection with a settlement dispute, while a separate arbitration connected with the project involved claims exceeding $2.7 billion.

The tribunal also ordered Sunrise and Adesanya to reimburse Nigeria for 75 per cent of its legal fees and expenses, reported at approximately $11.8 million.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu welcomed Nigeria’s victory, describing the ruling as removing a major legal obstacle that had hindered the Mambilla project for years.

The Presidency said the Federal Executive Council had never authorised the original 2003 contract and commended former President Obasanjo and the late President Muhammadu Buhari, who testified in the arbitration.

The tribunal’s ruling also dealt with a later $200 million settlement agreement between Nigeria and Sunrise and an addendum that introduced another $200 million default provision.

In separate findings, the tribunal concluded that the settlement arrangements were not binding on Nigeria because they lacked the required presidential approval. It also found the agreements to be products of corruption involving former Attorney-General of the Federation Abubakar Malami and Adesanya.

Those findings relate to the later settlement arrangements and are distinct from the tribunal’s examination of the 2003 $500,000 payment involving Atiku’s former wife.

The different strands of the ICC award have nevertheless become intertwined in the political debate over Atiku’s 2027 presidential bid.

The APC has focused on the $500,000 payment, its timing and the relationship between Adesanya and Atiku’s family, arguing that the circumstances require political accountability.

Atiku, on the other hand, has maintained that the tribunal did not find that he received a bribe or used his office to influence the award of the Mambilla contract.

The ICC’s findings show that the tribunal questioned the explanation for the $500,000 transfer because it lacked supporting documentation, while also stating that it found no evidence in the arbitration record that Atiku used his official duties to secure the contract for Sunrise.

The distinction is important because the arbitration was primarily a contractual dispute between Sunrise Power and Nigeria, with the payment examined as part of the evidence surrounding the contested Mambilla contract.

The controversy is now likely to remain part of the political debate ahead of the 2027 presidential election, particularly as Atiku, the ADC candidate, faces attacks from the ruling APC over his record in government.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s victory before the ICC has removed the immediate arbitration claims brought by Sunrise and its promoter over the disputed project.

The Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project, proposed as a major power-generation project in Taraba State, remains a significant component of Nigeria’s long-running plans to expand electricity generation.

Mambilla: ICC Raises Questions Over $500,000 Payment to Atiku’s Former Wife