By Okunade Kehinde
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, over allegations of fraud.
NewsBeatng reports that EFCC is investigating Agunloye over the $6 billion Mambilla hydropower contract.
Agunloye was brought before Donatus Okorowo, judge of 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 perfection 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, it was gathered that Agunloye turned himself in after he was declared wanted.
In September, the 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.
While responding, 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.
