$500,000 Transfer to Atiku's Former Wife Draws Scrutiny in Mambilla Power Arbitration

**A $500,000 payment made more than two decades ago to Jennifer Douglas, the former wife of Nigeria's then Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, has emerged as a significant issue in an international arbitration dispute involving the long-delayed Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project.** Details reported from the final award of an International Chamber of Commerce arbitration tribunal in Paris show that Leno Adesanya, promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, acknowledged making the January 2003 transfer. Adesanya maintained during the proceedings that the transaction was a legitimate foreign-exchange deal conducted on behalf of Atiku, who was Nigeria's vice-president at the time. The tribunal, however, scrutinised both the explanation and the circumstances surrounding the transaction. **Payment preceded disputed Mambilla contract** The $500,000 was transferred on January 30, 2003, through China Castle Investments Limited, an offshore company controlled by Adesanya, to a Citibank account belonging to Douglas in the United States. The transaction occurred less than four months before then Minister of Power and Steel Olu Agunloye purportedly awarded Sunrise a build-operate-transfer contract for the Mambilla hydropower project on May 22, 2003. That timeline became relevant during the arbitration because Nigeria argued that the transfer was connected to the disputed Mambilla contract. Sunrise and Adesanya denied that allegation. Adesanya told the tribunal that he had operated a bureau-de-change business through Moneyline Ventures Limited and that the $500,000 represented dollars purchased for Atiku after payment in naira. The tribunal found problems with that explanation, according to reports based on the final award. It noted an absence of contemporaneous documentation demonstrating the underlying naira transaction, while neither Atiku nor Douglas provided evidence to the tribunal corroborating the foreign-exchange explanation. Another issue concerned the company used to make the payment. Rather than Moneyline Ventures, which Adesanya identified with his currency-exchange activities, the transfer was made through China Castle Investments. Reports on the award say the tribunal found that China Castle did not have a bureau-de-change licence and that currency trading was not among its stated corporate purposes. **Tribunal stops short of finding Atiku took bribe** The distinction between the tribunal's concerns and a direct finding against Atiku is important. Reporting on the final award indicates that the tribunal did not find that Atiku personally received a bribe or establish that he exercised his official powers to secure the Mambilla contract for Sunrise. Instead, it examined whether the circumstances surrounding the payment could be connected to Atiku's position and involvement with the project. The tribunal concluded that it could not exclude a possible relationship between the transfer and Atiku's influential government role regarding the Mambilla project, according to reports based on the award. Atiku has previously denied wrongdoing in connection with investigations involving his financial affairs. TheCable reported that it contacted two of his media aides for comment concerning the latest disclosure. **Nigeria wins arbitration battle** The revelations surrounding the transfer form part of a much larger legal dispute between Sunrise and the Nigerian government over the Mambilla project. On September 17, the ICC tribunal issued an award favouring Nigeria and rejecting claims brought by Sunrise. The presidency said the dispute included a $680 million settlement-related claim and interest connected with another arbitration involving more than $2.7 billion in compensation and interest. Separately, reporting on the tribunal's detailed decision said Sunrise and Adesanya were ordered to reimburse Nigeria for 75 percent of its legal fees and expenses. President Bola Tinubu welcomed the decision, saying it removed what he regarded as the biggest legal obstacle that had prevented progress on the Mambilla hydropower project. He also acknowledged former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, who testified in the proceedings. Sunrise, however, has indicated that its response may not be finished. Adesanya said after the ruling that the company's lawyers were reviewing the decision and would advise on possible next steps. **The latest disclosures therefore add another chapter to a dispute stretching back more than two decades, while the circumstances surrounding the $500,000 transaction remain important to understanding the tribunal's examination of the controversial Mambilla deal.**