The Federal Capital Territory High Court in Apo, Abuja, on Monday, dismissed an application by former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, challenging the powers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to prosecute him.
EFCC is prosecuting Mr Agunloye, 75, on corruption charges concerning a failed $6 billion Mambilla Hydropower project.
Mr Agunloye denied the charges, and likewise filed an application to challenge the anti-corruption agency’s powers to prosecute him.
Ruling on the issue on Monday, the judge, Jude Onwueguzie, said Mr Agunloye’s application lacked merit because Section 177 of the Nigerian Constitution empowers the EFCC to try suspects on the alleged offences.
“I have studied the issues to be considered in this matter by the defendant whether the motion ought to be charged by the EFCC. It is eminent to note that the learned counsel in this case before the court are seasoned counsels, issues of such should not arise.
“The court is not a novice, neither is it confused or in doubt on matters like this, so the intervention of friends of the court is not needed. Therefore the motion is hereby dismissed,” the judge was quoted as saying in a statement shared with ThePageNews by EFCC’s spokesperson Delete Oyewale.
After the dismissal of the application, the judge adjourned the suit until 22 April 2024 for hearing.
At the last hearing, Mr Agunloye’s lawyer, Adeola Adedipe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), filed the application contending that the EFCC lacked both investigative and prosecutorial powers to prosecute his client on the fraud charges.
Mr Adedipe had urged the judge to invite the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, and the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yakubu Maikyau, to offer their legal thoughts regarding the appropriateness or otherwise of EFCC’s prosecution of Mr Agunloye.
In Monday’s ruling, the judge held that the defence lawyer’s request for Messrs Fagbemi and Maikyau to guide the court in reaching its decision on Mr Agunloye’s application was unnecessary because the AGF and the NBA are not parties in the case.
“…the basis for the application was not necessary as the court was not a novice and the friends of the court were not parties in the matter. He also said that the law was clear on matters to be prosecuted by the EFCC, citing Section 177 of the 1999 Constitution as amended,” EFCC statement detailing the outcome of Monday’s proceedings said.
Mr Agunloye served as power minister in former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration in 2003. But Mr Obasanjo accused Mr Agunloye of awarding the controversial contract without the Federal Executive Council’s approval. The execution of the multi-billion-dollar Mambilla Hydropower project in Taraba State has since been stalled.
The project, first awarded in 2003 to Sunrise Power and Transmission Limited by the Obasanjo administration, is the subject of decades of legal dispute that is now under international arbitration between the company and the Nigerian government.
Mr Obasanjo, in distancing himself from the mess that the project has become, claimed that he was not aware that the contract was awarded by his then-minister, Mr Agunloye.
Alleging fraud in the contract award, Mr Obasanjo insisted that no minister in his administration had the power to award a contract beyond N25 million.
But in his reply, Mr Agunloye refuted Mr Obasanjo’s claim and denied any wrongdoing.
He said he was being picked on as the fall guy for the government’s mishandling of the project, while those who were responsible for it were left off the hook.
According to Mr Agunloye, the contract for the project was duly awarded in 2003 by the Obasanjo administration on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis to deliver Nigeria’s biggest power plant with over 3,000 megawatts capacity at no cost to the Nigerian government.
The project was expected to significantly boost electricity to address the shortage of energy in the country.
“The former president was not correct when he referred to the award to Sunrise simply as a $6 billion contract (that is, N800 billion in 2003) under his watch. In truth, it was a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract in which the FGN did not need to pay any amount to the contractor, Messrs Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (Sunrise).”
Mr Agunloye said following the termination of the contract, the company sued the Nigerian government before an international arbitration court where it is claiming that the termination of the contract was illegal.
