MAMBILLA & NIGERIAN COURT PROCESS: Court grants hearing on charge amendment in criminalisation trial of Agunloye
The High Court in Apo village near Abuja at the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria sat promptly today, 11 November 2024, and called the case of FRN v Agunloye at 9.37 a.m. The Court has allowed the Prosecution lawyers and Agunloye’s Defence team to argue the amendment motion brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. We duly followed the court process today on the infamous court prosecution intending to criminalise a former Minister of Nigeria, Dr Olu Agunloye in a Nigerian court with the hope that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) might be able to evade liabilities at the International Arbitration in France over the shenanigans committed in relation to the Mambilla project between 2003 and 2021.
It will be recalled that on 21 October 2024, the prosecution (EFCC) sought to amend its charges that “Agunloye collected (retroactive) bribes, totalling N5m, in three instalments over a period of five months, from Sunrise Power Company between August and December 2019 for a contract awarded in 2003”.
Indeed, in May 2003, Dr Olu Agunloye, acting as the Minister of Power and Steel, had awarded the contract for the construction of the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project, valued at $6 billion, as a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract to Messrs. Sunrise Power Company at zero cost to the Federal Government of Nigeria, and up to this moment, the Federal Government of Nigeria has not made any payment in Naira or Dollars to Sunrise Power Company.
Between 2004 and 2007, the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Olusegun Obasanjo promulgated that electricity power projects should no longer be by BOT contract but by outright procurement contract. The then President went ahead and secured a huge grant of $16 billion from the Nigeria’s Excess Crude Oil Funds, moved all power projects in Nigeria from the Ministry of Power to the Presidency, and split the Mambilla power project into component parts. The president then started to re-award the component parts as procurement contracts.
Between 2008 and 2015, the Presidency, under Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua, cancelled the component Mambilla contracts awarded by President Obasanjo and re-awarded the Mambilla Project back to Messrs, Sunrise Power Company. However, between 2016 and 2019, under General Muhammadu Buhari, the Federal Government again re-awarded the same Mambilla project to yet another contractor.
It is the recurring contract awards and re-awards that led Messrs Sunrise and FGN to the International Arbitration Panel in Paris, France, wherein the Federal Government of Nigeria resorted to an odious criminalisation strategy to evade being penalised for any wrongdoings.
During the Nigerian trial of the former Minister Agunloye, EFCC produced its first prosecution witness in June 2024 who failed during cross examination to establish that Agunloye collected money from Sunrise Power Company as stated in Charges 5, 6 and 7 of the seven Charges levelled against the former Minister. Subsequent to this demolition of EFCC allegations, the Prosecutor then sought to amend the bribery charges to “receiving bribes from Mr. Jide Sotirin on behalf of Mr Leno Adesanya on behalf of Sunrise Power Company”.
Today, 11 November 2024, the Court noted that EFCC, the prosecutor, has filed its motion for the amendment of the charges to which the Defence had reacted. The Judge, however, observed that EFCC had further reacted to the response of Defence and had just served the Defendant’s lawyer this morning inside the court.
The judge, therefore, adjourned the case until Thursday, 14 November 2024, for the hearing of the Motion for Amendment of Charges by EFCC. The judge said that on the date of adjournment, the prosecution and defence will formally present their cases on the amendment of charges, and the judge will set a date for the ruling on this.
The court adjourned at 9.45 am. making today’s session only seven minutes in duration.
Dr. Anthony Ibrahim,
Truth and Justice Group.
Camberwell Green, London. UK.
11 November 2024
