MAMBILLA UPDATE: How the Defence Dismantled the EC Conclusions of EFCC

MAMBILLA UPDATE: How the Defence Dismantled the So-Called EC Conclusions of EFCC

Ministry of Power witness, PW5 presented by EFCC, admitted to court that he did not see the original FEC Minutes before he sent Extract from FEC Minutes to EFCC in July 2023 and did not crosscheck with the original when he “certified as true copy” the document brought back seven months after by Mr. Babangida of EFCC as FEC Minutes in January 2024 for certification.

The FCT High Court No. 30 under Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie, which has been hearing the Mambilla case for over two years, sat for the third time in the month of June 2026 on Wednesday, 10 June 2026. The Mambilla case was called at 11.45 pm and Dr Olu Agunloye, put on trial by the Federal Government on 7 count criminal charges, promptly took his stand in the dock.

The former Minister of Power and Steel is being tried for awarding the $6 billion Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project as a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract in May 2003, at no cost to the Federal Government of Nigeria. His charges are for awarding the BOT Contract “without the approval” of the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, “without cash backing”, “without financial appropriation” and for “taking a bribe of N5 million in 2019”, almost 17 years after he had ceased to be the Minister of Power or a public service officer.

During the course of this trial, significant damages were done by the Defence to the testimonies of the EFCC star witness, Mr Umar Babangida, an Assistant Commissioner of Police who rose to become a Chief Investigation Officer at the EFCC and who is also referred to, in the Mambilla case, as PW3, the third prosecution witness.

After demolishing the points advanced by the EFCC star witness, PW3, the defence lawyer progressed to tear down the principal document of the Prosecution labelled as “EC Conclusions” on which the EFCC rested its case. The defence, in the course of cross examination of Umar Babangida, PW3, dismantled the claims and allegations based on the so-called “EC Conclusions” which the Prosecution also calls “Extract of the Minutes of the Meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC of 21 May 2003”. This is hereinafter referred to simply as Extract for ease of reference.

Under cross-examination by the Defence, PW3 admitted that he submitted two versions of the Extract as Exhibit 3D and Exhibit 3K and he told the court that the two exhibits were, in fact, different in form and substance but that they referenced the Minutes of the same meeting of FEC on 21 May 2003. The Prosecution lawyer, Mr. Abba Mohhammed, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria must have found the damages to PW3 significant that he brought two more witnesses, PW4 and PW5 to do damage control. In the month of April 2026, he brought Barrister Ugochukwu, an Assistant Director (Legal) in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) who told the court that he produced the Extract labelled Exhibit 3D and “certified it as true Copy” of the original on behalf of the SGF for the use of EFCC while he was at the SGF Office in 2022.

Barrister Ugochukwu, PW4 further told the court that “Extracts are done for specific purposes and are expected to be mirror images of the parts of the original and should be the same at all times they are repeated”. He added that the person producing an Extract has no discretion or authority to cause any alterations or changes in the Extract. He said he did not know that that Mr. Babangida, PW3 had submitted two versions of the Extract to the court as Exhibit 3D, which he certified as true copy and another version as Exhibit 3K unknown to him (PW4). When PW4 was asked to compare the two versions of the Extracts, he told the court that they were different in form and substance.

On Monday, the 1st of June 2026, EFCC presented the fifth prosecution witness, PW5 in court. The witness, Barrister John Illya Iyakwari, an Assistant Director (Legal) from the Ministry of Power. Barrister Iyakwari, PW5 told the court that he was the one who prepared the Extract labelled Exhibit 3K and forwarded it to EFCC in 2023. He was cross-examined on the 8th and 10th of June 2026 by Mr Adeola Adedipe, the Defence lawyer. To the amazement of the court, PW5 made more startling revelations especially on Wednesday, 10 June 2026. Under cross-examination, PW5 revealed:
That he misled the court by saying that the Extract labelled Exhibit 3K was certified in June 2023 while it was done in January 2024.
That it was he who produced the Extract in June 2023 that was sent officially to the Chairman of efcc with a covering letter by the Ministry of Power in July 2023.
That after the Extract was officially released to the efcc in July 2023, one efcc staff named Mr Umar Babangida brought it back to the Ministry of Power seven months after, in January 2024, requesting that is should be certified as true copy of the original.
That he (PW5) told the court that Mr Babangida could possibly have been a prosecution witness and/or an investigation officer for EFCC.
That he is a lawyer with 21 years on the bar, and he told court that “certified true copy”, CTC means a document has been verified and confirmed to be same as the original copy.
That he identified and confirmed the letter addressed to Executive Chairman of efcc by the Ministry of Power labelled Exhibit 3J as the original copy but that he “mistakenly stamped it as ‘certified true copy’ of the original in an error”
That he only “got an oral instruction from the Director (Legal) of the Ministry of Power to certify” the document brought to him by Mr. Babangida and did not know why an official letter of the Ministry of Power to the EFCC was not officially responded to in writing to request for certification because he did not see such a letter with the Director of the Legal Department.
That he stamped the Extract labelled Exhibit 3K as “certified true copy of the original” without seeing or checking the original copy of the Minutes.
That he did not see the original or check the original in June 2023 when the Extract prepared by him was forwarded to EFCC in July 2023 and that he did not also see or check the original when he “certified as true copy” the document brought by Mr. Babangida of EFCC for certification in January 2024, after it has been with Babangida for seven months.
That he could be not tell if the version of the extract forwarded to EFCC in July 2023 had been tampered with or altered by any persons in the Legal Department of the Ministry of Power before it was packaged to EFCC because he did not see or compare with the original of the FEC Minutes.
That he could be not tell if the version of the Extract brought by Mr Babangida to him in January 2024 for certification, had been tampered with or altered by Mr Babangida or any persons in EFCC because he did not see or compare with the original of the FEC Minutes.
That when asked whether or not he (Iyakwari, PW5) was aware that the same Mr. Babangida had also submitted another Extract different from the one he certified to the court, the prosecution lawyer erupted in anger.

At this stage, the prosecution lawyer, Abba Mohammed jumped to his feet to stop the cross-examination by raising “objection” to the Judge. He argued that it was wrong for PW5 to be asked if he was aware that PW3 submitted another Extract when the Defence knew that PW5 was not in court until his Examination in Chief. The prosecution and defence lawyers went into a barrage of arguments that lasted for 35 minutes. At the end, the Judge overruled the objection and later adjourned the case until 18 June 2026 to conclude the cross-examination of PW5.

Report by @AbujaNews 10 June 2026

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