Former Minister of Power and Steel, Dr. Olu Agunloye, has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of intentionally misleading the public and damaging his reputation over the controversial Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project.
Speaking during his defamation suit against the EFCC at the FCT High Court in Maitama, Agunloye said the commission’s publication titled “EFCC Arraigns Agunloye Over $6 Billion Fraud” falsely portrayed him as corrupt. He is demanding a retraction, public apology, and ₦1 billion in damages for the alleged harm to his name and integrity.
Under cross-examination by EFCC counsel Dr. Wahab Shittu, Agunloye maintained that the Mambilla project he initiated in 2003 was a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) model that posed no financial cost to the federal government and had the backing of then-President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He claimed the EFCC twisted the facts to make it seem he awarded a $6 billion contract without due process and accepted a ₦5 million bribe years later, all in a bid to tarnish his legacy. “It was a deliberate attempt to portray me as a reckless minister and destroy the only property I have—my name,” he told the court.
Agunloye clarified that the ongoing international arbitration over the project stems from a 2017 contract awarded under President Buhari’s administration, not the 2003 BOT version he handled.
On Obasanjo’s claim that he never approved the project, Agunloye noted that the former president made that statement two decades later, despite a 2005 letter from legal icon Afe Babalola confirming that the contract was validly awarded.
He added that the government cancelled and re-awarded the project six times between 2003 and 2017, with the final version triggering the current legal dispute.