In an Abuja High Court hearing, Dr. Olu Agunloye, a former minister of power and steel, claimed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, was trying to harm his name in connection with the Mambilla Power Project.
In the defamation lawsuit he filed against the Commission before Justice Peter Kekemeke, Agunloye made this statement while under cross-examination from EFCC lawyer Dr. Wahab Shittu, SAN.
According to the former minister’s letter of summons in the complaint, submitted by his attorney Adeola Adedipe, SAN, and marked FCT/HC/CV/1199/2024, the EFCC has tarnished his reputation.
He said that by accusing him of fraud and corruption in a post on its official website, the EFCC was tarnishing his reputation.
To the application, he included an online article with the headline, “EFCC arraigns Agunloye over $6 billion fraud.”
As a result, Agunloye requested that the court declare the post to be untrue and disparaging of him.
Agunloye also requested an order for the EFCC to issue unconditional apologies and withdraw the publication that was derogatory of him.
He further sought the payment of compensation of N1 billion as general and exemplary damage to him.
“It is a deliberate attempt by the EFCC to push things around, misinform the public and paint me as one reckless minister who was involved in a $6 billion contract and was eventually captured.
“It is an attempt to say that I awarded the contract without approval and to have taken a bribe of N5 million 16 years after and damaged the only property I have, which is my name.”
He told the court that he was the Minister of Power when he wrote a memo to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the Mambilla Project, which was implemented on a Built, Operate and Transfer basis.
When asked if he had the then-President’s consent, he replied that he had asked the president to approve the proposal, and the president had done so.
He stated that, per the instructions of then-President Obasanjo, he sent a message to the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
Agunloye told the court that the international arbitration did not involve the Mambilla Project, which he had granted in 2003.
He went on to say that “the subject matter was the arbitration that Sunrise (Power and Transmission Company Limited) initiated on the terms of settlement.”
Agunloye informed the court that he was aware that the Federal Government was contesting issues related to the Mambilla contract the previous President Muhammadu Buhari’s government issued in 2017 rather than the one he awarded in 2003.
He claims that the contract he awarded in 2003—which he claimed was at no cost to the government—was canceled six times by the Federal Government. It was then issued six more times before encountering difficulties in 2017.
Adedipe informed the court that they (the claimant) were closing their case, thus Justice Kekemeke postponed the matter to October 30 for the defense to present theirs.
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