THE completion of Nigeria’s multi billion naira Mambilla Hydro Project could hit the rocks after a Nigerian company that lost out in the contract bid filed a $400 million lawsuit against the Federal Government.

The lawsuit filed by Nigerian-owned Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL) at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris, France, requested the court to order President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to honour its March 2020 agreement.

The company’s request for an award of $400 million with an interest of 10 per cent was initiated under the ICC’s expedited procedure rules, as specified in the agreements, and should be decided within six months.

The SPTCL claimed it  was awarded the contract to build and operate the 3,050-megawatt hydropower facility in 2003, which was followed by the signing of a General Project Execution Agreement (GPEA) with the government in November 2012.

The project was scaled to a 1,525-megawatt hydropower facility at $4 billion, but SPTCL was sidelined in the project by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.

Former Minister of Power Babatunde Fashola had granted the same contract in 2017 to three Chinese companies, Sinohhydro Corporation of China, China Ghezouba Group Corporation of China and China Geo-Engineering Group Corporation, to form a joint venture for the execution of the project.

The China Exim Bank was expected to provide 85 per cent of the joint funding with the Federal Government for the Mambilla project, but the bank insisted it  would not release the money until the legal standoff ended.

This prompted SPTCL to start court proceedings against Nigeria’s government at the ICC, demanding between $960 million and $2.4 billion in damages.