International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) tribunal on Wednesday, September 16, revealed that Leno Adesanya, founder of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, moved millions of dollars and naira through companies, intermediaries and relatives of influential Nigerian officials while pursuing control of the Taraba hydropower project.
The finding was contained in the tribunal’s final arbitral award delivered in Paris after it examined payments linked to former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, former minister of power and steel Olu Agunloye, former solicitor-general of the federation Abdullahi Yola, former permanent secretary in the ministry of power Dere Awosika and former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki.
The payments did not always go directly to the officials. In several cases, they were made to their wives, children, assistants or companies associated with them.
Adesanya used entities including China Castle Investments Limited, Lutin Investments Limited and Sunrise, while some transactions were routed through his personal assistant.
He described the payments variously as foreign-exchange transactions, medical assistance, loans, house renovation support and investments. He also said a multimillion-dollar transfer was intended to finance a quarry business connected to the Mambilla project.
The tribunal rejected some of the explanations and found inconsistencies in others, while noting that several transactions raised significant or serious red flags.
However, it stopped short of finding that every questioned payment was a bribe, saying in some cases the evidence did not establish that a public official performed a particular act in exchange for the money.
One of the payments examined was a $500,000 transfer made in January 2003 by China Castle Investments Limited to Jennifer Douglas Abubakar, who was then married to Atiku Abubakar.
The tribunal said the timing of the payment, which came while Adesanya was lobbying the government over Mambilla, raised significant concerns.
However, it found no evidence that Atiku had exercised his governmental powers to secure the project for Sunrise and therefore did not make a definitive finding that the payment was a bribe.
In 2019, Adesanya also arranged three payments totalling about N5.2 million to Agunloye through his assistant, Jide Sotinrin.
Adesanya said the payments were humanitarian assistance for Agunloye’s medical treatment, but the tribunal found insufficient evidence to establish that they were used for that purpose.
It said the payments raised significant red flags, particularly because Agunloye was potentially an important witness in Sunrise’s arbitration over the 2003 award letter he had signed.
The tribunal also examined a N10 million payment made in 2015 to Vincent Awaji, a former ministry of justice clerk and assistant to Yola, for Yola’s benefit.
Adesanya initially described the payment as a loan for house renovations and the establishment of a law practice but later changed aspects of his explanation.
The tribunal found his changing accounts troubling and noted that the payment exceeded Yola’s annual salary before his retirement. It also found indications of an official act potentially connected to the payment, given Yola’s role in agreements that benefited Sunrise.
Another transaction involved N25.01 million transferred between May 2015 and January 2016 to Tola Awosika and his company, 355 Integrated Services Limited.
Tola was the son of Dere Awosika, then permanent secretary in the ministry of power.
Adesanya said the money was an investment in Tola’s restaurant business for the benefit of his daughters.
Although there was documentary evidence supporting an actual business investment, the tribunal said the circumstances surrounding the payment raised serious red flags.
The tribunal also examined a $1.74 million transfer made by Sunrise to Abubakar Dasuki, son of former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, in December 2014.
Adesanya described the money as a loan for a quarry operation linked to the Mambilla project, but the tribunal found no credible and uniform explanation for the transfer.
It said bank records showed that the money was spent on school fees, aircraft charters and other transactions, while no evidence established that a substantial portion was used for the proposed quarry.
The tribunal also noted the incorporation of an offshore company whose proposed shareholders were three of Sambo Dasuki’s children and which was intended to hold 10 million Sunrise shares.
It described the arrangement as a serious red flag but found no concrete evidence that Sambo Dasuki intervened in the Mambilla process or used his office to assist Sunrise.
The tribunal’s clearest corruption finding concerned former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami.
It found that Malami and Adesanya reached a corrupt deal over a proposed $200 million settlement between Nigeria and Sunrise in 2020.
The tribunal said the arrangement involved a promised share of money Sunrise would receive under the settlement, although the precise amount could not be confirmed.
It also found that Malami cooperated in committing Nigeria to settlement obligations that could have exposed the country to $400 million, including a $200 million default provision.
The tribunal held that the settlement agreement and its addendum were unenforceable because they were products of corruption and lacked the required presidential approval.
The tribunal also rejected Sunrise’s claims against Nigeria and ordered Sunrise and Adesanya to reimburse the Federal Government $11.82 million in legal fees and $414,125 in arbitration costs.
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