The former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, faced charges of fraud as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) brought him before Justice Donatus Okorowo of the Federal High Court.
Pleading not guilty, Agunloye was remanded in Kuje Correctional Center until bail is considered.
In December 2023, the EFCC declared him wanted for alleged forgery and corruption, leading to his subsequent arrest.
The case revolves around Agunloye’s involvement in the Mambilla project during his tenure under President Olusegun Obasanjo, where accusations of fraudulent contract awards without Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval surfaced.
Agunloye contested the allegations, asserting that the former president distorted facts, prompting diverse reactions from Nigerians, including Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka questioning the EFCC’s actions.
In his statement titled; “In pursuit of justice, productivity, under the rule of law,” Soyinka argued that the practice of citizen detention at the whim of either religious blackmail or secular arrogation demands curtailment at source, most especially when exercised in defiance of the law, and the pronouncements of its agencies.
“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,” Soyinka wrote.
“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?’’
