Sunrise Power and its promoter now face substantial financial exposure after a three-member International Chamber of Commerce tribunal concluded a $500,000 transfer to Jennifer Douglas occurred on 30 January 2003, before the technical committee recommended Sunrise for the Mambilla hydropower award. The panel dismissed Sunrise’s claims in full and ordered Sunrise and its promoter, Leno Adesanya, to reimburse the Federal Republic of Nigeria for 75 percent of its legal fees and expenses.
The tribunal’s award records that the payment moved through China Castle Investments Limited, an offshore vehicle the panel determined Adesanya controlled. Adesanya told the arbitral panel the transfer was a foreign-exchange operation done on behalf of Atiku Abubakar, and said the funds represented dollars he had bought with naira through a bureau de change he ran, Moneyline Ventures. In his fourth witness statement he said, "I confirm that I made a transfer of $500,000 to the Abubakars through my company China Castle Investments Ltd in early 2003."
The tribunal rejected that account because Adesanya failed to produce documentary evidence of the underlying naira payment, an exchange rate, written instructions from Atiku or his aides, or correspondence about the transfer. The panel also noted Moneyline’s licence was not established, China Castle was not authorised to conduct foreign-exchange transactions, and Adesanya accepted that China Castle’s corporate objects did not include such deals.
The arbitral record places the contested payment inside an active procurement window for the Mambilla project. Sunrise and North China Power Engineering signalled interest in September 2001, Sunrise was incorporated in October 2001, and Adesanya joined a federal delegation led by Atiku to China in July 2002 that signed a memorandum of understanding covering several projects. Sunrise lodged its tender around 15 or 16 January 2003, and a technical committee recommended Sunrise on 12 March for the 3,960MW scheme after reviewing four proposals. Sunrise had proposed a tariff of 2.1 US cents per kilowatt-hour under a 40-year build-operate-transfer arrangement.
Neither Atiku Abubakar nor Jennifer Douglas gave evidence in the arbitration, and Sunrise did not produce statements from either to support Adesanya’s foreign-exchange explanation. Adesanya also told the tribunal Douglas had become estranged from Atiku and "would not even pick my call," the award records. Efforts to reach Atiku’s media adviser, Paul Ibe, were unsuccessful as of press time.
The award closes the arbitration by rejecting Sunrise’s case and imposing significant cost liabilities on the company and its promoter. With the tribunal’s findings now final, Sunrise must meet the ordered reimbursement and the decision removes the company’s legal challenge to the federal government’s position on the Mambilla procurement.
