The conviction of a former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, on 12-count charges bordering on money laundering to the tune of N33.8 billion has once again beamed a searchlight on the failed Mambilla power project.
The 3,050MW Mambilla plant in Taraba State was designed to be Nigeria’s largest power plant, but it has been stalled for over 40 years despite billions of naira sunk into the project.
When completed Mambilla project will be Nigeria’s biggest power plant. It is aimed to increase electricity access to the country; stimulate economic growth, enhance the living standards of millions of Nigerians and increase power export to Niger, Togo, Benin and Chad.
The project is also expected to increase Nigeria’s current electricity generation by 30 per cent and the country’s baseload electricity generation capacity, thereby improving grid stability.
Experts say the project will be a major source of additional power generation capacity that will make Nigeria meet its 90% electricity access rate by 2030.
Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday convicted the former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, on 12-count charges bordering on money laundering to the tune of N33.8 billion.
The former minister, who was absent in court, was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Mamman recently joined the Taraba State governorship race under the All Progressives Congress (APC), ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The charges
The EFCC had alleged that Mamman, sometime in 2019, while he was the Minister of Power, conspired with other officials of the ministry and some private companies to indirectly convert the total sum of N33,804,830,503.73.
The sum was said to have been diverted ‘through various private companies which sums you reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of unlawful activity, to wit: criminal breach of trust in relation to the funds released for the Mambilla and Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant Projects by the Federal Government of Nigeria; and you thereby commmited an offence contrary to Sections 18(a), 15(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 {as Amended), and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.’
The charge further stated Mamman, sometime in December 2019, conspired with one Samson Bitrus to make a cash payment of US$665 to Mohiba Investment Ltd – acting through one Mohammed Asheik Jidda – without going through a financial institution, thereby committing an offence contrary to Sections 1 and 18(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as Amended), and punishable under Section 16(2)(b) of the same Act.
Justice Omotosho had slated the judgment for Thursday after parties in the case were duly served with hearing notices. However, when the matter was called, the ex-minister was not in court.
Defence counsel, Mohammed Ahmed, informed the court that, although his team was duly informed that the matter was slated for judgement on Thursday, they could not get in touch with him on time.
‘My Lord, the defendant is not in court. We received a message that the matter is for judgment, and it was delivered on Tuesday.
‘Since then, we have been trying to reach him (Mamman), but all efforts made have not been successful. But yesterday (Wednesday), one of his associates informed us that he is indisposed,’ he said.
EFCC counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, SAN, confirmed that the prosecution received the hearing notice and that judgement was scheduled for Thursday. He faulted Ahmed’s claim that Mamman was ill, stressing that there was no evidence to back up his submissions.
The prosecution lawyer said that under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, the court has the discretionary power to proceed with the ruling.
After lengthy arguments between the prosecution and defence counsel, Justice Omotosho frowned at Ahmed’s remarks on the whereabouts of the former minister.
‘The defendant is not here, and there is no medical report to back this. We are all ministers in the temple of justice counsel,’ the judge said. Oyedepo then urged the court to proceed with the judgment.
Justice Omotosho consequently convicted Mamman of the 12-count charges of money laundering and deferred the sentence to May 13, 2026 because the former Minister was not present in court.
To prevent Mamman’s escape from the country before the sentencing, Oyedepo applied for a bench warrant to produce him in court. The application was granted.
The project
Recall that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the award of the 3,050MW Mambilla Hydroelectric Project to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis for $6bn in May 2003.
Olu Agunloye, the then Minister of Power, signed the contract on behalf of the Federal Government. The contract was to be financed by China EXIM Bank, with Nigeria providing 15% counterpart funding.
After the award, the FEC reportedly directed that the contract memo be withdrawn for renegotiation because the terms needed review and the financing structure wasn’t finalised.
The EFCC, in December 2023, charged Agunloye with fraud and forgery over the Mambilla contract, accusing him of awarding the contract without FEC approval and costing the federal government over N65bn in loss.
Agunloye pleaded not guilty. He argued that he acted within his authority as minister and that the contract was validly approved by FEC. The trial is still ongoing at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The EFCC also alleged that Agunloye’s actions created the legal foundation for Sunrise’s $2.3bn arbitration claim against Nigeria at the International Court of Arbitration in Paris, France.
Mamman’s conviction has beamed a searchlight on the over 40-year-old Mambilla project, which had over the decades enjoyed a series of fund approvals by successive administrations in Nigeria but still has zero megawatts on the national grid.
The 3,050MW plant was designed to be Nigeria’s largest power plant, but has sadly been at the pre-construction stage without installed turbines and generating electricity.
Over $1bn has been spent on feasibility studies, consultants, and preliminary works since the 1980s, yet the project remains on paper.
However, the 2017 contract awarded to a Chinese consortium was contested by a Nigerian-Italian consortium, Sunrise Power, which claims it had the original 2003 contract.
How court cases stall project
Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL) had on October 10, 2017, dragged the Nigerian government to the International Court of Arbitration administered by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) for the alleged breach of a 2003 agreement to construct the 3,050MW plant in Mambilla, Taraba State, on a ‘build, operate and transfer’ basis for $6 billion.
The federal government insisted that the contract award was irregular and did not pass through due process.
But Sunrise headed to court when a bid process for the civil works was announced by the government in 2007 and a series of litigation stalled the project.
A former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in 2017, had described Sunrise Power as a middleman.
The minister had said the Buhari administration was directly contracting the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor, Sinohydro Corporation Limited, a Chinese firm, currently handling the project.
After several negotiations, Mamman had, in 2020, reportedly said the parties had reached an out-of-court settlement of $200 million.
The court battle took a new turn when Sunrise later filed a $400 million compensation claim at the ICC against the government for allegedly breaching the new agreement.
The company had said the sum was to serve as an out-of-court settlement, which the government allegedly failed to honour as it had agreed to pay in 14 days after it was signed by a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and Sale Mamman for the government and the Chairman/CEO of Sunrise Power, Leno Adesanya.
The company’s legal representative, Femi Falana, then filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Arbitration on May 11, demanding $400 million as overall claims, including penalties.
According to Sunrise in its claim document, the amount was to be paid ‘within 14 days’ of the execution of the terms of the agreement on January 21, 2020, along with a 10 per cent penalty if there was a default in the settlement terms.
The company had also said it was agreed that it would be restored as the local partner for the current $5.8 billion Mambilla power project.
A follow-up on this showed that the pact was revised and the local partner condition was removed. The federal government later requested a review of the negotiation, citing the COVID-19 pandemic effects on the Nigerian economy.
Obasanjo, Buhari testify in court
The court case made former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari to testify before the ICC in 2025. Sources confirmed to Daily Trust then that both leaders were in Paris in respect of the matter.
Obasanjo’s media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, then told Daily Trust on the telephone that his principal was in France. He, however, said he was not privy to what took the former leader there.
‘I can confirm to you that the former president is right now in France and that is the only thing I know,’ he said.
Obasanjo had, in an interview with TheCable in 2023, said: ‘If a commission of inquiry is set up today to investigate the matter, I am ready to testify.’
Project suspended under Tinubu
Daily Trust reports that since the inauguration of the Tinubu presidency in 2023, the government has stopped funding the project.
The former Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, had attributed the suspension to the court cases involving the project ownership.
The minister, who spoke at the 2024 budget defence session organised by the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Power, said the zero allocation to the project was deliberate since nothing could be achieved until the arbitration was settled.
He said, ‘For Mambilla, there is no provision for it in 2024. It isn’t a mistake. It is deliberate. It is under international arbitration. Until it is resolved, we can’t do anything about it.’
Stakeholders hail Mamman’s conviction
Stakeholders in the energy sector commended the conviction of the former Minister, saying it’s the beginning of the long-term solutions to the issues that have stalled the completion of the multi-billion-naira Mambilla project.
Tayo Adegbemile, Executive Director of Power-Up, a not-for-profit organisation, told Daily Trust that while the judiciary did well by prosecuting Mamman for his involvement in the Mambilla mess, other actors therein shouldn’t escape the long arms of the law and should be punished accordingly.
He also emphasised the need for the government to publish details of allocation and reallocation of funds gulped by the project with a view to informing Nigerians of the amount sunk therein and those who contributed to its current ill-fate.
According to him, Nigerians deserve to know the challenges crippling the project and must be told in clear terms by the current handlers of the sector.
He also told Daily Trust that there is a need for the federal government to bring in another foreign company that will help resuscitate the ambitious project, especially now that Nigeria needs increased power stability to actualise the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
Blaming politicians for stalling the power infrastructure, Rasheed Adeleke, an energy expert, told one of our correspondents that Nigeria must revisit the earlier contract details and court filings relating to the project.
He explained that the development would provide a fresh direction to the issue and guide Nigeria on how best to handle the legal impediments.
He regretted that successive governments in the country showed an unenthusiastic attitude to the project, adding that such a stance was counterproductive to industrialisation.