By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, PhD
Staggering revelations have emerged in London showing efforts by Milele Energy and its corporate financiers to cover-up an ongoing investigation into the company’s corrupt acquisition of an energy contract in Sierra Leone. New corporate records from the United Kingdom’s Registrar of Companies obtained by the Africanist Press reveal that Milele Energy and has suddenly changed its corporate name to Osprey Renewables Africa Limited.
The records also show that the decision to change the company’s name was reportedly reached after a supposed emergency meeting held on Wednesday 16 October 2024 agreed on a “special resolution” to change the company’s name. The application to change Milele Energy into Osprey Renewables Africa Limited was submitted to the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales on the same day (16 October 2024) and was approved the following day on 17 October 2024; less than 24 hours after the application was submitted.
Last week, we reported that two of the company’s American executives, Erik Granskog and James Ireland, had also abruptly resigned from the company; leaving only two British nationals and a South African said to be resident in the United Kingdom as the remaining executive officers.
The questionable resignation of Milele’s two American executives, Erik Granskog and James Ireland, came shortly after the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which is the US Government’s development finance institution, announced a US$412 million energy loan issued to Sierra Leone through Milele Energy and its corporate partner, TCQ Power Limited.
In early May 2024, US Ambassador Bryan David Hunt told Sierra Leoneans that Milele Energy and its corporate partner, TCQ Power “will revolutionize Sierra Leone’s energy landscape” and that their impacts “will be profound, fueling progress, prosperity, and a brighter future for all Sierra Leoneans.” Hunt’s optimistic words echoed those of the DFC and Hunt’s own counterparts in the State Department in Washington DC, as well as the corporate executives of Milele Energy and TCQ Power Limited; the two reported recipients of the US$412 million DFC loan on behalf of Sierra Leone.
However, what Hunt failed to disclose at the time are crucial details on fundamental questions that every Sierra Leonean should be asking today. These questions include how did DFC and Milele Energy take over the Western Area Power Generation Project? What is the legal and financial basis for the additional US$412 million debt financing being imposed on Sierra Leone in the name of the same electricity project whose viability has been repeatedly questioned by independent energy experts?
Added to the above elementary questions are also the following: why did Erik Granskog and James Ireland resign from their executive positions at Milele Energy? Should they not be brought to account to Sierra Leoneans on whose names they took such colossal amounts of debts from US development finance agencies?
For several months now, we have been asking these crucial questions regarding Milele Energy and the surreptitious manner through which the DFC and the US Embassy in Freetown usurped the corruption-infested Western Area Power Generation Project. The US Embassy in Freetown and officials of the DFC have ignored these questions. They have instead embarked on a propaganda campaign designed to deceive Sierra Leoneans by falsely claiming that the United States is offering a gift of US$480 million to boost Sierra Leone’s energy sector.
It is important for us to note that there is no record of any competitive bidding and public tender process that Milele Energy and DFC went through to take over the Western Area Power Generation Project. Sierra Leoneans are still unaware of the loan conditions, including the interest rates attached to DFC’s development finance loans. DFC is yet to disclose the process used to issue the US$412 million debt to the US-owned company Milele Energy for the alleged purpose of building an electricity infrastructure in Sierra Leone. DFC has also not clearly disclosed its real corporate affiliations and investment stake and financial interest in Milele Energy.
We must also note that while these questions remain unanswered, the non-transparent DFC debt issued to Milele Energy remains hanging like a lyncher’s noose on the necks of present and future generations of Sierra Leoneans. Worse, the Americans who signed onto the debts on behalf of Sierra Leoneans have now resigned from the company without explanation. Most tragically, the names of the companies they used to impose US$412 million debts on Sierra Leone, are also being changed.
We have circulated documents on various Africanist Press social media platforms showing Milele Energy’s change of name approval certificate from the United Kingdom’s Registrar of Companies issued on 17 October 2024.
Papa God tenki for SL
Cause Your word says to thank you in all things .
Thank you especially for the genuine true patriots that want a Better nation above them/ourselves
So sad 😞 for our Motherland Mama Sierra Leone 🇸🇱
Thx Kortor @ChernohAMBah for your due diligence in putting the betterment of our Nation First