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 a federal high court in 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.
In September, TheCable reported that EFCC traced some
suspicious payments made by Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd to Agunloye’s
bank accounts.
Former President Olusegun 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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