BY Bolanle Olabimtan
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned Olu Agunloye, former minister of power and steel, over allegations of fraud.
The EFCC is investigating Agunloye over the $6 billion Mambilla hydropower contract.
Agunloye was brought before Jude Onwuegbuzie, judge of a federal capital territory high court, Apo, Abuja on Wednesday, where he pleaded not guilty to the charges read against him.
The former minister has been remanded in Kuje prison pending the perfecting of bail conditions.
The EFCC had declared Agunloye wanted on December 13 over alleged corruption.
The anti-graft agency had asked members of the public with useful information about Agunloye’s whereabouts to contact the agency.
Thereafter, a source privy to the investigation informed TheCable that Agunloye turned himself in after he was declared wanted.
“Since December 14, 2023, a day after we declared him wanted, was when he turned himself in and since then he has been with us,” the source said.
A DEAL SHROUDED IN CONTROVERSY
Sunrise Power is in arbitration with Nigeria at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Paris, France, alleging a breach of contract over the Mambilla hydropower project.
The company said it was awarded a $6 billion build, operate and transfer (BOT) contract in May 2003, during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, but that the federal government repudiated the agreement.
Sunrise is asking for a compensation of $2.3 billion, claiming it had spent millions of dollars on financial and legal consultants before the contract was jettisoned.
In September, TheCable reported that EFCC traced some suspicious payments made by Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd to Agunloye’s bank accounts.
Obasanjo also challenged Agunloye to tell Nigerians where he derived the authority to award a $6 billion contract to Sunrise for the Mambilla hydropower project in 2003.
In his response, Agunloye said the government was not obliged to pay a kobo to Sunrise under the build, operate, and transfer (BOT) agreement as it was to be fully funded by the newly registered company, whose declared assets were worth less than $2,000 at the time.
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