Agunloye’s lawyer questions Imoke in efforts to justify award of controversial Mambilla power project

Former Minister of Power Olu Agunloye’s defence team questioned former Cross Rivers State Governor Liyel Imoke at the FCT High Court in Abuja to justify the award of the controversial $6 billion Mambilla Power project in 2003.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Mr Agunloye on various corruption charges, including awarding the contract without the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and in violation of a presidential directive.

However, Mr Agunloye’s defence team sought to disprove the acclaimed violations on Monday by using Mr Imoke’s testimony. Mr Imoke succeeded Mr Agunloye as power minister in 2003 during then-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

Mr Imoke, the sixth prosecution witness, said on 19 October, when he opened his testimony, that the FEC never approved the contract, which preceded his appointment as minister.

The former governor said he learned of the FEC’s refusal to approve the contract from reading the minutes of the council’s 21 May 2003 meeting where the matter was deliberated.

Following his testimony, defence lawyer Adeola Adedipe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), sought to pick holes in Mr Imoke’s claim on Monday, by raising doubts regarding the council’s adoption of the minutes of the 21 May 2003 meeting.

Mr Adedipe noted that the 21 May 2003 FEC meeting was the last to be held during Mr Obasanjo’s first term before the cabinet was dissolved.

He said it is uncertain if the subsequent FEC adopted the said minutes.

Under cross-examination by the defence, Mr Imoke confirmed that the 21 May 2003 FEC meeting was the last held by the council during Mr Obasanjo’s first term.

Speaking on the workings of the FEC meetings, he explained that the council’s decisions were extracted from the minutes, which “are read and considered page by page” at the following FEC meeting.

When asked how the 21 May 2003 minutes were adopted, Mr Imoke replied that “the extracts were circulated after the council was dissolved.”

He said he was not privy to the adoption of the FEC meeting since he was not a minister or a council member as of May 2003. He was only appointed minister in July 2003 during Mr Obasanjo’s second term in office.

“I wasn’t a member of the Council. I did not become minister until August 2003. I don’t want to make any assumptions on something I have no knowledge of.

“I don’t have knowledge of the adoption. I can’t recall. This happened in 2003.”

Mr Agunloye faces seven charges, including disobedience to a presidential directive, conspiracy, forgery and receiving gratification.

The charges stemmed from his roles in awarding the controversial $6 billion Mambilla Hydroelectric Power contract in May 2003 to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL).

The project was a proposed 3,050 MW hydroelectric facility located in Kakara village, Taraba State, which never saw the light of day.

The prosecution said Mr Agunloye disobeyed a presidential directive issued in 2003 during a Federal Executive Council meeting regarding the contract.

It added that Mr Agunloye disobeyed the directive by signing a letter addressed to SPTCL, purportedly conveying “the approval of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the construction of the 3,960 megawatts Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station.”

The EFCC also accused Mr Agunloye of conspiring with Leno Adesanya, the major promoter of SPTCL, who the agency indicated was at large, to falsify a document titled “Construction of 3,960MW Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station on a Build, Operate and Transfer Basis” in 2003.

Other allegations include receiving gratifications of over N5 million from SPTCL and Mr Adesanya.

Mr Agunloye has denied all seven charges.

An arbitration tribunal recently exonerated Nigeria regarding the contract after finding that the award of the contract to SPTCL was tainted by bribery.

Cross-examination on FEC minutes of meeting to continue

The defence could not conclude Mr Imoke’s cross-examination on Monday.

Following Mr Imoke’s doubt about the adoption of the minutes of the 21 May 2023 FEC meeting, defence lawyer Mr Adedipe requested that other documents previously accepted by the court as exhibits should be handed over to him to check for any evidence of adoption of the minutes by the subsequent council.

“It will take me sometimes to go through all of these documents,” Mr Imoke said when he was handed the documents on Monday.

On the request of prosecution lawyer Abba Mohammed, trial judge Jude Onwuegbuzie, adjourned the case until 11 November.

Controversial minutes

The minutes of the 21 May 2003 minutes had been a subject of contestation during previous proceedings.

In November 2025, the third prosecution witness, Umar Babangida, an EFCC investigator, told the court that the contract award letter dated 22 May 2003, allegedly issued by Mr Agunloye, was forged.

Mr Babangida testified that EFCC investigations found no record showing FEC approved the contract and maintained that the award did not follow due process.

He also told the court that investigators obtained records showing 40 ministers attended the 21 May 2003 FEC meeting and that no approval was granted for the contract at that meeting.

Under cross-examination in March, however, the same witness acknowledged that the defendant reduced the federal government’s equity participation in the project from an initial proposed 25 per cent to not more than 10 per cent, a difference he agreed amounted to $900 million, though he insisted the reduction was done without presidential approval.

The witness also confirmed the EFCC alleged Mr Agunloye received N5.2 million in 2019 from businessman Leno Adesanya through an intermediary, an allegation the former minister has disputed, maintaining the money was related to a medical emergency.

The fourth prosecution witness, Ugochukwu Okoli, testified in April that the copy of the minutes tendered in the case originated from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

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Mr Okoli said he handled a request from the EFCC for certified extracts of the FEC minutes while serving on a posting from the Federal Ministry of Justice to the SGF’s office as an assistant legal adviser.

He told the court that in September 2022, the SGF’s office received a letter from the EFCC requesting the extract of the minutes of the 21 May 2003 FEC meeting concerning a memo presented by the then Minister of Power on the proposed 3,960 megawatts Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station.

Controversial contract

The project, first awarded in 2003 to SPTCL by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, is the subject of decades of a legal dispute. An arbitration tribunal in Paris recently resolved the matter in favour of Nigeria and against SPTCL, which had accused Nigeria of breach of contract.

Mr Obasanjo, in 2023, accused Mr Agunloye of fraudulently awarding the contract to the company without approval.

However, the former minister denied these claims, alleging that he was being used as a scapegoat to escape sanctions by the arbitration panel in Paris for abandoning contractual agreements on the project.

The project, intended to generate 3,960 megawatts of electricity, was designed to be executed on a build, operate, and transfer basis.