By Eric Elezuo
For Eti-Osa Lagos born Chief Leno Adesanya, Founder of Sunrise Power Limited, business must be not only be transparent, but seen to be transparent, and that has necessitated his long drawn battle with the Federal Government of Nigeria over the real awarded contractor of the Mambilla Power Project in Taraba State. The duo of Leno Adesanya and Sunrise Power are seeking $2.3 billion in compensation for an alleged breach of contract by the Federal Government.
The stories behind the Project has remained a riveting story of power play at the highest level, involving presidents, ministers and former ministers of high profile portfolios, businessman of profound abilities and other top past and present government functionaries. A previous The Boss investigation into the matter revealed that corruption, in addition to unnecessary powerplay contributed, and is still contributing to the comatose state of the project, and the unwarranted legal processes that have caused a great deal in revenue and man labour time loss to the country.
Many observers had wondered why such high octane misgivings and intrigues were witnessed during the Buhari Presidency.
On October 10, 2017, Sunrise initiated arbitration against Nigeria at the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris, seeking $2.354 billion in damages for “breach of contract” related to a 2003 agreement to construct the 3,050MW Mambilla power plant in Taraba State on a “build, operate, and transfer” basis, valued at $6 billion.
In a second arbitration, the company is demanding $400 million as compensation for the Nigerian government’s failure to honor the terms of a 2020 settlement agreement intended to resolve the dispute.
The tussle, which has dragged for an upward of 12 years since 2003, when it was first awarded by the Obasanjo administration, and counting, took another another dimension the previous week, when two former presidents of the country; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) volunteered to testify against the businessman in far away Paris. Both, as well as former Minister of Power, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, among others attempted to prove that the contract awarded Sunrise and Leno Adesanya, was invalid.
Former Presidents Obasanjo and Buhari’s appearance at the Paris hearing could very well have been described as cameo, but for the seriousness of the situation. It was not a movie; a country’s integrity, and man’s quest to clear were at stake. Obasanjo and Buhari knew this. So their appearance to testify before the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration in Paris, France, stating that the Federal Government never awarded a contract for the $6 billion Mambila Power Project to Sunrise Power, was well thought out.
Obasanjo and Buhari argued that the 2003 agreement, which Sunrise Power based its claims on, is invalid. They claimed that the agreement was signed by former Minister of Power, Dr. Olu Agunloye, 24 hours after the Federal Executive Council rejected the contract award to Sunrise Power. Agunloye is currently facing trial for forgery, disobedience, and corruption related to the power project.
The testimonies of Obasanjo and Buhari were corroborated by other high-ranking officials, including Justice Minister Lateef Fagbemi, former Minister of Power Babatunde Raji Fashola, and former Minister of Water Resources Engr. Suleiman Adamu. They were of the unanimous agreement that their testimonies are in the interest of the nation.
“It is very important for nation’s case that the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, was successful in bringing two former presidents – Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari to testify at the hearing.
“By this action, the government of Nigeria sent a signal of its strong commitment to defending the nation’s interest.
“Both leaders-Obasanjo and Buhari-are known for speaking forthrightly and unequivocally, and this they were said to have exhibited in Paris.
“To the delight of the international team of lawyers representing Nigeria, the two past presidents did extremely well, exposing the Sunrise/Leno’s claim for what it is: an attempt at using fraud, deceit and lies to scoop settlement from Nigeria in the first instance, for the alleged violation of a 2003 contract for which there is no valid approval, a source told The Nation Newspaper.
The Nation’s source, which described the testifiers as team Nigeria, and united, abducted frowned at Leno for not producing any witnesses, added that “It was by and large a great showing, consolidated by the equally outstanding testimonies of former ministers Engineer Sulaiman Adamu, formerly of Water Resources, and Babatunde Raji Fashola, Power.
“The Arbitration Court in France had a week-long hearing 18th-23rd January in Paris on the ongoing dispute between Sunrise Company/Leno Adesanya and the government of Nigeria on the existence or the absence of a contract for the construction of the Mambilla Power Project.
“Although it is up to the chairman and other members of the tribunal to decide on who is right and who is wrong, it can be said at this point that Nigeria had a very good outing on the basis of certain facts that have emerged from Paris.”
It accused Adesanya and his Sunrise of relying on a purported 2003 agreement.
“The 2003 contract was established not to have been validly in existence. This is worsened by the fact that the complainants failed to produce their major witnesses.
“The much-touted appearance of a one-time Minister of Power, Dr. Olu Agunloye, did not also materialise. He was the one who allegedly signed a letter communicating the approval of the contract 24 hours after its rejection by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) which meeting was presided over by Obasanjo.
“A third ‘key witness” a Senegalese lady, did not also appear at the hearing.
“So who spoke for Sunrise/Leno Adesanya?
“He did everything for and by himself.
“Another major setback suffered by the complainants was their over-reliance on an earlier witness statement deposed to by Abubakar Malami, Minister of Justice and Attorney General under President Buhari.
“Malami, on whose testimony the complainants made heavy weather, ended up lining up behind his former boss, President Buhari, to support and prepare him well for his (Buhari’s) testimony.
“This strategy had the dual benefits of ensuring Buhari’s successful testimony and at the same time pulling the rug from under Leno Adesanya’s feet,” the paper concluded.
It is still not clear however, why Sunrise was disqualified, except for the testimonies of the Nigerian government, and now the former presidents that the contract was invalid. Another question that continue to re-echo is which company has taken its place as Local Content Partner, and since the Chinese had committed to paying $millions of dollars to Sunrise, who will be receiving this payment? Again, was there was a tender, and under which circumstances did Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) issue these Chinese firms Due Process Certificates?
Much as Sunrise is no longer interested in the above question, but the recovery of it $2.3 billion, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has not stopped hounding Agunloye of awarding the contract without budgetary provision, approval, or cash backing. However, Agunloye claims that the government is using him as a scapegoat to undermine Sunrise Power’s claims.
WHY I TESTIFIED – OBASANJO
In an exclusive interview granted Premium Times, former President explained his reasons for standing in the dock to testify.
He said, “I volunteered myself to testify in this case. Nobody sent me to do so. President Tinubu did not ask me to do so as speculated. I didn’t speak to anybody on my intention to testify,” Mr Obasanjo said.
“I decided to testify because of the statement made on the matter by Olu Agunloye. I considered his claims atrocious and thought it necessary to set the records straight.”
Obasanjo was Nigeria’s president between 1999 and 2007, the period when the contract with Sunrise was supposedly entered into. He is joined in blaming his former Minister, Agunloye, for the effrontery to award and signed the contract, even there was no executive permission. He described claims claims made by Agunloye as regards the $6 billion project as ‘atrocious’.
Obasanjo emphasized that his decision to testify was not influenced by President Bola Tinubu or any government official. Instead, he wanted to set the record straight about the contract, which was awarded during his administration in 2003.
“I volunteered myself to testify in this case. Nobody sent me to do so. President Tinubu did not ask me to do so as speculated. I didn’t speak to anybody on my intention to testify.
“I decided to testify because of the statement made on the matter by Olu Agunloye. I considered his claims atrocious and thought it necessary to set the records straight,” Obasanjo concluded.
In the same vein, the administration of President Bola Tinubu has defended Buhari’s appearance at the arbitration, saying the former president was not was pressured to testify, and that he did so willingly and out of patriotism.
HOW IT ALL STARTED – THE BOSS 2018 INVESTIGATION, DISCOVERY
Prior to the official tender process, Sunrise started promoting the Mambilla Project as early as year 2000. It reportedly engaged the offices of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as well as the Nigerian Embassy in China.
Sunrise sought a resolution without success. Sunrise and North China engaged Chief Afe Babalola, (SAN) to demand compensation.
“Consequent upon the preliminary steps towards execution of the contract, our clients have incurred well over Three Million Pounds while there are commitments to several consultants local and international in excess of Thirty Million British Pounds.”
Nothing was heard on the project until May 29, 2007 when, allegedly influenced by a Senior Government official, the Government awarded a part of the SUNRISE contract (Lot I, Civil/Hydraulic Steel Structures) of the (2,600MW Mambilla Hydroelectric) First Phase of the project to Messrs CGGC/CGC Ltd, in the sum of US$1.46billion.
Of course, Sunrise did not take this lying down. It took the matter to the Federal High Court, Abuja suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/384/2007. The defendants in the case were The Minister of Energy, The Attorney-General of the Federation, China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) and China Geo-Engineering Corporation (CGC).
Following a Presidential Visit to China in 2008, word reached late President Yar’Adua about an alleged $15m bribery that led to the award of the $1.46 billion contract to CGGC/CGC on May 29, 2007.
Late President Yar’Adua, we gathered then invited Sunrise, then Minister of State, Power (Late Hajiya Fatima Balaraba Usman), Minister of State and the accused Presidential official for a meeting.
In October 2012, the Federal Government decided it wanted to own the Mambilla HydroPower Project and wanted an urgent settlement. This led to the signing of the Settlement and General Project Execution Agreement (GPEA) between the Federal Ministry of Finance, then Honourable Minister of State, Power, Architect Darius Ishaku now Governor of Taraba State signed, and then Solicitor-General of Federation, Mr. Abduallahi Yola signed for the Federal Government.
When the Federal Government filed the Settlement Agreement in Court at the Federal High Court, Abuja, the Court rejected it because CGGC/CGC did not sign the Settlement and GPEA Agreements.
It was at this meeting that Mrs. Zainab Kuchi, new Minister of Power and the Solicitor-General of the Federation signed a new Out of Court Settlement Agreement with Sunrise (Its Chairman, Mr. Leno Adesanya signed) and also a new GPEA with Sunrise and Sinohydro (Its Technical and Financial Partners) was affirmed with a mandate to execute 100% of the EPC Contract.
The new Minister, Professor Chinedu Nebo then appealed to Sunrise to vote CGGC (Not CGC) as Co-contractor, a position that was accepted by Sunrise so that the project will be up and running.
It was not therefore, a surprise that on June 29, 2015, President Buhari reportedly hosted Alhaji Lawal Idris for over an hour at the Presidential Villa. He was in the company of Mr. Leno Adesanya, the Chairman/CEO of Sunrise.
There was an indication that since there was another Sheriff in town, the project will start revving again. When it didn’t, Sunrise wrote Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, (SAN) on February 26, 2016, notifying him that it had held joint meetings with the two companies (SINOHYDRO and CGGC) in Beijing, and they have agreed to split the EPC Contract on a 50/50 basis; The Minister notified his Permanent Secretary, Mr. Louis Edozien in the letter.
That was not all, many people involved in the project were now more enthusiastic when it was announced that President Buhari was preparing his first official visit to China.
We gathered from the delegation, that with pressure from Mr. Leno Adesanya, Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State, Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State and Chief Audu Ogbe, decided to bring the situation to the attention of a very angry President Buhari, who was upset that the Taraba Governor was not invited on the trip by the Minister of Power Works and Housing. In any case, that was how Mambilla hit the front burner and became one of the key issues of the Presidential visit.
In addition, on April 25, 2016, Mr. President wrote through his Chief of Staff (Letter No. SH/COS/05/A/1847) to the Honourable Attorney-General, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, copying the Minister of Power Works and Housing (HMOPWH), to propose a strategy for resolving all the legal issues and disputes relating to the Mambilla Power Project including the matter of the “warring parties”.
1) Government should engage Sinohydro Corpration and CGGC jointly for the purpose of executing the Mambilla Project in line with the Spirit of the Letter of Award dated January 14, 2015, on a 50-50 basis or based on other technical parameters to be determined by the Project Consultants
3) Sunrise Power & Transmission Company Limited should be engaged as Local Content Partner on the Mambilla Project as a means of accommodating its prior contractual interests on the project
Curiously, six days after this legal advice, the Chief of Staff allegedly invited a Kaduna-based Chinese Company (CGC Nigeria Limited) to a meeting at the Presidency.
Despite being told by the Chairman of Sinohydro, and Fashola about the existing agreements with Sunrise, the CoS insisted that they should go ahead with the new arrangement, and instructed the Chinese to deal directly with the Presidency and the Ministry; not their local partners.
Fashola replied three days later in a letter: FMP/6145/S.11/Vol.11/517, noting that his ministry welcomes the meeting requested that aims to resolve all issues raised.
While everyone involved was looking forward to that meeting, Mallam Abba Kyari fired a letter he personally signed to The Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housing on May 22, 2017 with the title: Re: Letter Referenced FMP/6145/S.II/569 In Respect of Mambilla HydroProject
“Further to our discussion, kindly note that Messrs Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited is not party to the existing arrangements on this project.
Interestingly this letter was written when Mr. President was having his medical vacation abroad.
Mr. Leno Adesanya, who signed the letter as Chairman/CEO, updated the Acting President on the project, alerting him that it was the Chinese that informed them of the sad news.
“We are however constrained to observe that the latest developments, if not rectified in line with the legal recommendations of the HAGF, prior to seeking FEC approval, shall leave us with no choice but seek legal redress where appropriate including against the Chinese government. We are however, confident that with your expected intervention, this reluctant prospect can be avoided.
The Attorney-General certainly was also unhappy with this development, little wonder that on July 24, 2017 he also wrote the Acting President.
He re-affirmed his recommendation insisting that he informed the Chief of Staff to the President and Minister about this and he wanted the Acting President to give appropriate directive.
He advised Mr. Leno Adesanya, whose company, Sunrise, had been short-changed to “go to court”.
The ICC Case No. 23211/TO is between Sunrise, Federal Government of Nigeria and Sinohydro Corporation Limited.
THE MAN, CHIEF LENO ADESANYA
According a document made available to The Boss by the Sunrise office, Chief Adesanya’s personality is captured in the following lines:
Chief Leno Adesanya is a prominent Nigerian businessman and entrepreneur, renowned for the role he is playing in Nigeria’s energy sector. He hails from Eti-Osa Local Government Area in Lagos State and has spent several decades advancing power generation and transmission initiatives in the country. His expertise and ventures have placed him at the center of several high-profile projects aimed at addressing Nigeria’s energy deficits.
Business Ventures
Chief Adesanya is the CEO of Lutin Investments, a Geneva-based company, and serves as the promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL). Through these entities, he has spearheaded significant energy projects, leveraging strategic partnerships and investments to drive development in Nigeria’s power sector. His companies have collaborated with international partners, including Chinese firms, to propose large-scale solutions for the country’s energy challenges.
Involvement in the Mambilla Power Project
One of Chief Adesanya’s most notable endeavors is his involvement in the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project, located in Taraba State, Nigeria. This ambitious project, with an expected capacity of 3,050 megawatts, is among the largest hydroelectric initiatives in Africa. Designed to alleviate Nigeria’s chronic power shortages, the project’s progress has been hindered by delays, funding challenges, and legal disputes.
In 2003, Sunrise Power, in collaboration with Chinese partners, was awarded a $6 billion Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) contract by the Nigerian government.
However, the contract was annulled in 2007, prompting a series of legal disputes between Sunrise Power and the government. Chief Adesanya’s company subsequently filed a $2.3 billion claim for breach of contract, with the case currently in arbitration in Paris (Nairametrics, 2025).
Legal Disputes and Arbitration
The Mambilla Power Project has been entangled in prolonged legal battles, with multiple arbitration cases involving Chief Adesanya and his company. Testimonies from former Nigerian presidents and ministers have featured prominently in these cases, reflecting the project’s high stakes. Past administrations, including that of President Muhammadu Buhari, sought out-of-court settlements to resolve disputes with Sunrise Power. However, agreements were often reneged upon, prolonging the conflict (Businessday NG, 2025).
Controversies
Chief Adesanya’s involvement in the Mambilla Power Project has been subject to scrutiny and controversy. Allegations of bribery and corruption have emerged, with claims that he offered incentives to public officials to secure favorable outcomes for his company. In 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) declared Leno Adesanya wanted in 2024 for an alleged case of conspiracy and corrupt offer to public officers related to the Mambilla project (Nairametrics, 2024). Despite these challenges, he remains a key figure in Nigeria’s energy landscape.
Legacy and Impact
Through his leadership of Lutin Investments and Sunrise Power, Chief Leno Adesanya has played a role in shaping discussions around Nigeria’s energy future. While his involvement in the Mambilla Power Project has been marked by legal and political complexities, his efforts underscore the critical importance of private sector participation in addressing Nigeria’s infrastructural challenges.
THE MAMBILLA POWER PROJECT: AN OVERVIEW
- The project is being developed by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Power
- The project is made up of four dams and two underground stations
- The project is located in the eastern Nigerian state of Taraba
- The project is being funded by the Chinese Export-Import Bank
Project challenges
- The project has been involved in legal disputes
- The project has faced challenges due to unreliable transmission and distribution networks
With the testimonies of the likes of Obasanjo and Buhari, the Nigerian government may be on a roller coaster of victory, but Chief Adesanya appears to still have some aces up his sleeves, and may pull a surprise comeback, armed with all the documents of the transactions at his disposal.
Time, as always, will tell.
