The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has declared Leno Adesanya, the promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Limited, wanted for “an alleged conspiracy and corrupt offer to public officials.”
The EFCC reported this in a notice issued on Tuesday.
Adesanya was named in three of seven counts against former Minister of Power and Steel Olu Agunloye, who is being prosecuted by the EFCC for the $6 billion Mambilla hydropower contract.
Agunloye was charged with seven counts of contract fraud and official corruption in January 2024.
The EFCC claimed that on May 22, 2003, Agunloye granted Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited a contract named “Construction of 3,960MW Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station on a Build, Operate, and Transfer Basis” with no budgeted provision, approval, or cash backing.
On August 10, 2019, the former minister was also accused of receiving N3.6 million from Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, and Leno Adesanya of conveying the ‘approval of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the construction of the 3,960 megawatts Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station’ in favour of SPTCL without the approval of the Federal Executive Council.
Adesanya, however, pled not guilty to the accusations.
Meanwhile, The Cable says that Sunrise Power is in arbitration with Nigeria at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France, citing violation of contract.
The corporation alleged that the Obasanjo administration awarded it a $6 billion build, operate, and transfer (BOT) contract in May 2003, but the federal government at the time rejected the accord.
Sunrise is now seeking $2.3 billion in compensation, alleging it spent millions of dollars on financial and legal experts before to the contract’s termination.
The Nigerian government claims fraud and corruption by public authorities in the contract awarding process in its defense at the arbitration hearing.