Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has confirmed the detention of a former Minister of State for Power Olu Agunloye.
Gatekeepers News report that the EFCC declared Agulonye wanted over an alleged $6 billion fraud related to the controversial Mambilla hydropower project.
A source in the anti-graft agency told Channels Television on Tuesday that Agunloye has been detained since 13 December 2023.
“He has been with the EFCC since December 13th,” the source said. “But it was not made public.”
Agunloye was a minister under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government (1999-2003), who has been at the centre of the controversy about the Mambilla project.
The former president had accused him of fraudulently awarding the contract for the project without the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval.
Agunloye, however, denied the accusations and claimed the former president was distorting facts.
His most recent travails have continued to generate reactions from Nigerians. Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka is the latest to comment on the matter.
On Monday, Soyinka in a statement, captioned “In pursuit of justice, productivity, under the rule of law,” questioned the agency’s action.
Soyinka wrote, “The immediate provocation for these reflections is the ongoing predicament of a former Minister of Power, Dr. Olu Agunloye, currently detained by the EFCC, in total contempt of sense and justice, or indeed, basic humane considerations. We shall not go into the merit or demerits of the charges raised against him over a 16-year-old project that bears the name Mambilla. –that is the business of the law courts.
“Our concern at this moment is however only partially on the basis of individual fundamental human rights. Most fortuitously, the detention of any former public servant under circumstances such as Agunloye also provokes the question: how is public interest – such as the pursuit of justice – served by such an arbitrary exercise of power?’’
