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EFCC declares company promoter wanted over failed $6bn Mambilla Hydropower Project

The EFCC posted the notice declaring Mr Adesanya, a promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd, wanted on its verified Facebook page on Wednesday.

Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, EFCC, has declared Leno Laitan Adesanya, a promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd, wanted over his alleged role in the $6 billion Mambilla hydropower contract.

The EFCC posted the notice declaring Mr Adesanya wanted on its verified Facebook page on Wednesday.

In the publication signed by EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale, the commission urged members of the public to volunteer useful information about Mr Adesanya’s whereabouts.

Mr Adesanya, 66, hails from Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos State.

Background

In January, the EFCC arraigned a former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, on corruption charges concerning the failed multi-billion-dollar Mambilla Hydropower project.

In one of the seven counts filed by the anti-graft agency, it accused Mr Agunloye of awarding a contract in May 2003 for the construction of 3,960 megawatts (mw) Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station on a ‘Build, Operate and Transfer basis’ “without any budgetary provision, approval and cash backing”.

The commission said the award of the contract to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL) constituted an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 22(4) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

It also accused Mr Agunloye of corruptly receiving N3.6 million from Sunrise Power company in August 2019, years after leaving office, for the purported approval of the federal government for the award of the contract to the company.

EFCC said this act is also contrary to and punishable under Section 8(1)(a) and (b) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

But Mr Agunloye denied all the charges, insisting that he is being picked on as the fall guy for the government’s mishandling of the project, while those who were responsible for it were left off the hook.

The project, first awarded in 2003 to Sunrise Power and Transmission Limited by the Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration, is the subject of decades of a legal dispute that is now under international arbitration between the company and the Nigerian government.

Mr Obasanjo, in distancing himself from the botched contract, claimed that he was not aware that the contract was awarded by his then-minister, Mr Agunloye.

According to Mr Agunloye, the contract for the project was duly awarded in 2003 by the Obasanjo administration on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis to deliver Nigeria’s biggest power plant with over 3,000 megawatts capacity at no cost to the Nigerian government.

The project was expected to address Nigeria’s intractable energy crisis.

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