Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, has said energy firm, Sunrise Power Transmission Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPTCL) has discontinued its arbitration case against the federal government, leading to removal of legal impediments to the Mambilla hydropower project.
Responding to a question on the lingering arbitration process while fielding questions from journalists yesterday, Malami said the legal battle constituted a bottleneck which stalled investment into the project.
The federal government had in August directed the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to “source” and pay $200 million to the firm.
“Sunrise had withdrawn its pending arbitral proceedings in respect of which it was claiming against the interests of the federal government an amount owed in the region of around $1 billion,” he said.
“So, as it is the only impediment to Mambilla project, which had been the pending litigation that constituted an impediment that stopped the investors from investing in Mambilla had been effectively displaced with the withdrawal, with the discontinuation of the arbitral proceedings by Sunrise.”
The minister said the discontinuation of the proceedings in Paris calls for celebration.