$6bn Mambilla saga: EFCC to arraign ex-power minister Olu Agunloye

Olu Agunloye, former minister of power and steel, will soon be arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), TheCable can report.

The EFCC had declared Agunloye wanted on December 13 over alleged corruption.

The anti-graft organisation had asked members of the public with useful information about Agunloye’s whereabouts to contact the agency.

The EFCC is investigating Agunloye over the $6 billion Mambilla hydropower contract.

A source privy to the investigation informed TheCable on Tuesday 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.

“We have given him bail conditions which he has met and he will soon be arraigned.”

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.