A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to henceforth delete the name of the promoter of Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, Leno Adesanya, from its list wanted persons.
The court said Adesanya’s name should not be linked with criminal allegations associated with the $6 billion Mambilla hydropower project contract.
Justice Inyang Ekwo issued the order yesterday in a judgment he delivered in a fundamental rights enforcement suit Adesanya and his firm filed against the EFCC, the Federal Ministry of Power and Steel, the Federal Government of Nigeria, and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).
The judge agreed with Adesanya’s lawyer, M. S. Diri (SAN), that since the Ministry of Power had contested the claims of the plaintiffs and counter-claimed against them (Sunrise’s claims) at the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration, the sanctity of the arbitral proceedings must be respected and protected.
He said the court was concerned about safeguarding the integrity of the arbitral proceedings between the parties, based on the United Nations Conventions on International Dispute Resolutions, which Nigeria is a signatory to and has also domesticated.
Justice Ekwo averred that the Ministry of Power must not be seen as a territory where international commercial transactions are unsafe and where municipal laws and agencies could be used against investors in case of disputes.
He said Sunrise instituted fresh arbitral proceedings against the Federal Government of Nigeria, which are still ongoing.
Acknowledging that the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution are not absolute, the judge said they cannot serve as a defence against the violations of such rights in manners that are at variance with constitutional provisions.
According to him, the EFCC has no valid defence to justify its publication of Adesanya’s name and photograph as a “wanted person” on its website.
Justice Ekwo issued an order “quashing, setting aside, and prohibiting the publication of the first plaintiff (Adesanya) as a wanted person or threatening to prosecute the plaintiffs by the EFCC over the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project, pending the determination of the contractual dispute between the second plaintiff and the second and third defendants, which is pending before the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration in Paris, under ICC Case Reference Number 26260/SPN/AB/CPB, where the second and third defendants have joined issues”.
In his ruling, he said an order “of mandatory injunction is hereby made directing and compelling the EFCC, whether by itself or through its officers, agents, servants, or any other means, to immediately take down, delete, and remove the name and photograph of the first plaintiff as a ‘wanted person’ from its website: https://www.efcc.gov.ng and all other social media platforms and notice boards; and to remove all other negative content concerning or relating to the first plaintiff in connection with any criminal allegations”.
Adesanya and his firm had claimed that they were being witch-hunted following the Federal Government’s failure to comply with the contractual agreement on the Mambilla power project and the institution of an arbitral proceeding against the country.
The defendants averred that despite the pendency of arbitral proceeding, the Federal Government and its security agencies, including the EFCC, sought to criminalise and scandalise the Mambilla power project in a bid to evade their legal contractual obligations.