Mambilla: ‘Nigeria not an easy mark in int’l arbitration’ - The Guardian Nigeria News
Chairman of the Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics, Dele Oye, has hailed the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, for his role in saving Nigeria from over $14 billion in major international arbitration claims.
This was as the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) demanded professional sanctions against former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, if misconduct is established in his handling of the Mambilla hydropower dispute.
But Paul Ibe, the Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar, said the case exposed APC’s wide political propaganda and short evidence.
Oye, in a tribute to Fagbemi entitled ‘When the Republic Found Its Voice’, said the Attorney-General’s handling of major international disputes demonstrated that Nigeria could no longer be treated as an easy target in international arbitration.
He cited the P&ID, Sunrise Power, and European Dynamics cases as evidence of a stronger, more determined legal defence of Nigeria’s economic interests.
According to him, the cases collectively involved more than $14 billion in stated claims or potential exposure, making their outcomes significant not only for the country’s legal standing but also for the protection of public resources.
Oye described Fagbemi as a lawyer whose contribution to Nigeria extended beyond courtroom advocacy to the protection of the public purse and the restoration of confidence in the country’s institutions.
He said the P&ID case was particularly significant because the arbitral awards, which had grown to billions of dollars with interest, had the potential to seriously damage Nigeria’s economic stability and international reputation.
The successful challenge to the award, Oye noted, followed years of investigation and legal work by Nigerian authorities and their international legal team, with Fagbemi providing institutional leadership during the decisive period and its aftermath.
HURIWA also commended Fagbemi and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for their roles in protecting Nigeria from potentially huge financial liabilities arising from the dispute.
In a statement signed yesterday by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA said the latest International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration award represented a significant development in the effort to protect the country’s financial interests.
The 616-page final award, delivered in Paris on September 16, rejected Sunrise Power’s claims against Nigeria, according to HURIWA.
The tribunal also criticised aspects of the handling of the dispute under Malami, including the renegotiation of settlement terms involving Sunrise.
HURIWA said the tribunal found that the settlement agreements were products of corruption and unenforceable under Nigerian public policy.
It added that the tribunal found Malami and former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, lacking in authority to bind the Federal Government without presidential approval.
According to the association, the tribunal further found that Malami continued seeking presidential approval after former President Muhammadu Buhari had rejected the proposed settlement.
Saying the findings were serious enough to warrant scrutiny beyond the arbitration proceedings, it called on the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) and other competent professional bodies to examine them and determine whether they constitute professional misconduct.
ACCORDING to Ibe, the APC Presidential Campaign Council wants Nigerians to believe that the Mambilla arbitration delivered a corruption verdict against Atiku.
“The tribunal examined a $500,000 transfer made on January 30, 2003, by Sunrise promoter, Leno Adesanya, through China Castle Investments Limited, to the United States (U.S.) bank account of Jennifer Douglas, then Atiku’s wife.
“The tribunal did not accept Adesanya’s explanation that the payment represented a foreign-exchange transaction conducted for Atiku. It found that the explanation was unsupported by contemporaneous documentary evidence and regarded the circumstances surrounding the payment as raising ‘red flags’,” Ibe stated.
He noted that the disputed award letter was issued on May 22, 2003, by then Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye.
The controversy before the tribunal concerned whether the purported award had the necessary authority from the President and the Federal Executive Council (FEC). Published accounts of the award show that President Olusegun Obasanjo had directed that the matter be presented to the FEC, while the extent of any subsequent approval became a central issue in the arbitration.
“Yet the APC Presidential Campaign Council rushed from those facts to dramatic accusations of ‘treasonable act’, ‘greed’, ‘bribe’, ‘corruption’ and an ‘illegal contract’,” Ibe stated. “If the APC PCC maintains that Atiku corruptly procured the Mambilla contract, it should identify the evidence connecting him directly to the disputed award: a directive, correspondence, instruction, testimony or other record showing that he used his office to secure the contract for Sunrise.”
