MAMBILLA: More revelations, wrong choice of words, and apologies
Former president Obasanjo approved that Sunrise Company be invited for final Mambilla Contract negotiations and approved the technical and financial basis for the selection of Sunrise before Agunloye was appointed as Minister of Power.
4 December 2025
More Revelations
Under cross-examination on Thursday, 4 December 2025 in Abuja, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr Umar Babangida, who has been the Chief Investigating Officer for EFCC for over 10 years made more staggering revelations which the defence lawyer claimed could lead to a three-faceted justice: for the bench, the parties, and the public at large.
On this fourth day of the cross-examination, some dozen remarkable revelations came to light:
1. Before Agunloye was appointed as Minister of Power, President Obasanjo approved that Sunrise Company and Tafag and Co, out of seven companies, be invited for negotiations for the award of the Mambilla contract by the then Minister of Power, Dr Olusegun Agagu.
2. By the time the approved contract negotiations were completed, Dr Agagu was no longer the Minister of Power. He had been succeeded by the defendant, Mr Agunloye.
3. The documents presented to the court showed that Sunrise Company emerged successful on account of its technical competence and the superiority of its tender.
4. One of the reasons for the emergence of Sunrise was that it proposed a Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract as opposed to the Build Operate and Own (BOO) model put forward by Minister Agagu.
5. The new Minister Agunloye wrote on 7 April 2003 to President Obasanjo to inform him of the four pillars for the recommendation of Sunrise Company for the Mambilla as:
Appropriate manpower, technical competence, and hydro-management experience.
The Nigeria-China MOU which was prepared and overseen in China by the then Vice President Atiku Abubakar when he was on a presidential visit to China along with the Minister of Power. The MOU was signed on behalf of Nigeria by the then Minister of Power on 3 July 2002. This was before the Defendant Agunloye was appointed Minister of Power.
Involvement of China groups and the Government to provide finance, and security for Sunrise Company.
Acceptance of FGN’s condition that Nigeria’s equity should not exceed 25%, not 35% as proposed by Minister Agagu.
6. The investigations, documents and evidence tendered in court by Mr. Umar Babangida also labelled as PW3 confirmed that all four bases of the recommendation were correct.
7. However, when the defence lawyer asked PW3 which of the four bases on which the recommendation of Sunrise was made came into existence after the appointment of the defendant as Minister of Power, he said he could not recall when the involvement of the Chinese government came into being.
8. When PW3 started to read out the Nigeria-China MOU of July 2002 and was revealing that the establishment of ‘Basis 3′ was indeed contained in the 2002 Nigeria-China MOU, the Prosecution Lawyer leapt to his feet and a major drama unfolded after.
9. The defence lawyer appeared irritated and told the Prosecution Lawyer, who is senior to him at the bar, to “Sit down”. “Why are you trying to substitute the witness statement?’
10. The Prosecution and the Judge objected to the statement “sit down” as unpalatable. The Defence counsel apologised to the Prosecution lawyer and to the court.
11. When calmness returned to the court, PW3 read out the relevant paragraph of the 2002 MOU but said he did not agree saying that it was only about “contract financing” by China Export and Import Bank, China EximBank.
12. The Defence lawyer explained that China Eximbank is a Financial Agency of the Chinese Government just like the Central Bank is an Agent of the Federal Government of Nigeria, and then PW3 agreed.
Adjournment
At this juncture, the judge halted the cross-examination and adjourned until Thursday, 18 December 2025, as well as 19th and 21st January 2026
#Aliyu Awuma Reporting
