A judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court at Apo, Jude Onwuegbuzie, has granted bail to a ex-minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, who was arraigned on Wednesday for a $6 billion contract fraud.
Mr Onwuegbuzie had remanded Mr Agunloye at a correctional centre in Abuja, after the defendant took his plea, denying any wrongdoing when the charges were read to him on Wednesday.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accuses the former minister who served in the administration of erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo of fraud in the award of the botched Mambilla Hydropower Project cited in Taraba State.
The project was meant to resolve Nigeria’s epileptic power issues.
At Thursday’s proceedings, the judge granted Mr Agunloy bail in the sum N50 million and two sureties in like sum.
Mr Onwuegbuzie, while ruling the defendant’s bail application, held that the sureties must be reputable residents of the Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
He further said the sureties must own landed assets worth N300 million, adding that the Certificate of Occupancy of the properties must be verifiable.
Other conditions for the bail are that the sureties must submit copies of their identity cards and photocopies of their passports to the court registry.
The judge ordered Mr Agunloye to surrender his passport to the court, and be present in court at all times for the trial.
Earlier, Mr Agunloye’s lawyer, Adeola Adedipe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), urged the court to either grant his client bail on self-recognisance or on liberal terms.
Mr Adedipe argued that the charges against Mr Agunloye were bailable, promising that his client would not jump bail.
He said Mr Argunloye was not a flight risk and that the notion by the prosecution was “borne out of misconception and communication barrier”.
Mr Adedipe urged the court not to order the use of a public servant as surety for his client, referencing the case of Sambo Dasuki, a former National Security Adviser (NSA).
“Once a defendant is admitted to bail, even if he absconds, trial will continue and he will be convicted where necessary,” Mr Adeola said, citing Section 352( 4) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).
But the prosecution lawyer Abba Muhammed, opposed the bail request, citing EFCC’s earlier disagreement with Mr Agunloye.
The commission had declared Mr Agunloye wanted after it alleged the defendant jumped the administrative bail earlier granted him.
EFCC, in December 2023, declared Mr Agunloye wanted over a case of alleged corruption and forgery.
Mr Agunloye surrendered himself for interrogation on 13 December, a day after he was declared wanted by the commission over corruption allegations regarding a failed multi-billion-dollar Mambilla Hydropower project.
An associate of the former minister, Oluwafisan Bankale, also wrote in a statement at the time that Mr Agunloye was “neither in hiding nor on the run.”
Assuring friends and members of the general public who might be worried about Mr Agunloye’s whereabouts and his safety, Mr Bankale said “he is in the custody of the EFCC and cooperating with them.”
He also vouched for the integrity of the former minister.
The judge has slated 12 February for commencement of trial.
Mr Agunloye, 75, was arraigned on seven counts of fraudulent award of the contract and official corruption on Wednesday.
He pleaded not guilty to all the seven counts preferred against him.
In one of the seven counts filed by the EFCC, the commission accused him of awarding a contract in May 2003 for the construction of 3,960 megawatts (mw) Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station on a ‘Build, Operate and Transfer basis’ “without any budgetary provision, approval and cash backing”.
EFCC said the award of the contract to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL) constituted an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 22(4) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
It also charged Mr Agunloye with corruptly receiving N3.6 million from Sunrise Power company in August 2019, years after leaving office, for the purported approval of the federal government for the award of the contract to the company.
EFCC said this act is also contrary to and punishable under Section 8(1)(a) and (b) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.
