In 2003, then-minister of Power Olu Agunloye awarded Sunrise Power and Transmission Company a contract to build the 3,050MW Mambilla Hydropower Plant in Taraba State on a build-operate-transfer basis, valued at $6 billion. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has repeatedly denied authorising the deal, saying no minister could commit Nigeria to a project of that size without his express consent, and that he had told Agunloye to step the idea down before it went to the Federal Executive Council. Despite the contract, construction never meaningfully progressed, and the Mambilla project became one of Nigeria's most prominent stalled infrastructure ambitions, dragging on across successive administrations. After years without resolution, Sunrise took Nigeria to the ICC International Court of Arbitration on October 10, 2017, seeking $2.354 billion in damages for alleged breach of contract.
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