A prosecution witness told the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Apo has maintained that former Minister of Power and Steel Development, Olu Agunloye, awarded the controversial Mambilla Hydropower contract without approval from the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

Testifying before a judge, Jude Onwuegbuzie, on Monday, Umar Babangida, an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said Mr Agunloye’s successor, Liyel Imoke, informed investigators that the FEC did not approve the $6 billion Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract awarded to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited in May 2003.

Mr Agunloye is facing seven counts of fraudulent contract award and official corruption in relation to the project.

According to a statement by the EFCC’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, on Wednesday, Mr Babangida, who is the third prosecution witness, said Mr Imoke, who took over the ministry in mid-2003, wrote to Sunrise Power to clarify that the FEC meeting of 21 May 2003, did not approve Mr Agunloye’s memo seeking to award the project to the company.

Mr Babangida said further that Mr Imoke, who is a former Governor of Cross River, advised Sunrise to participate in future bidding when the project was officially advertised.

“He (Imoke) told investigators he wrote to the company, advised it to follow due process, and stated that until he left office in November 2006, no approval was granted to Sunrise for the Mambilla project,” Mr Babangida testified.

He added that Mr Imoke voluntarily provided a handwritten statement to the EFCC confirming this.

But the defence counsel, Adeola Adedipe, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), objected when Mr Babangida attempted to reference general findings from the EFCC’s investigation that were not tendered as evidence.

Mr Adedipe argued that such findings could not be cited unless formally presented in court.

In response, prosecution counsel Abba Mohammed, also a SAN, insisted the witness was entitled to give oral testimony as a member of the investigative team.

Mr Onwuegbuzie adjourned the case till 7 July for a ruling on the admissibility of the oral testimony, and further to 10 and 16 July for continuation of the trial.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Babangida earlier said former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who chaired the May 2003 FEC meeting, denied approving the contract.

The witness cited a letter dated 27 November 2023, where Mr Obasanjo told the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) that he merely directed Mr Agunloye to submit the contract memo to the FEC for discussion, but the Council asked that it be withdrawn.

“He reiterated in a follow-up EFCC meeting on 7 February 2024, that the project was never approved and that Agunloye’s contract letter of 22 May 2003, was unauthorised,” Mr Babangida said.

Despite the directive to withdraw the memo and invite competitive bids, Mr Babangida told the court that Mr Agunloye awarded the $6 billion contract to Sunrise Power the very next day, 22 May 2003.

The EFCC witness also testified that Mr Agunloye received multiple payments from a top aide of Sunrise Power’s promoter, Leno Adesanya, more than a decade after leaving office.

“We discovered that the defendant received N3.6 million on August 10, 2019, N500,000 on October 22, 2019, and N1.1 million on November 13, 2019—all paid by Shotire Jide Abiodun, a personal assistant to Adesanya and a director at Sunrise,” Mr Babangida said.

In January 2024, the EFCC arraigned Mr Agunloye, 75, over the failed Mambilla Hydropower project.

The anti-graft agency accused him of awarding a 3,960MW Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract to Sunrise Power in May 2003 without budgetary provision, presidential approval, or cash backing.

In February 2025, the EFCC re-arraigned him on an amended seven-count charge, including forgery, gratification, and disobedience to lawful presidential directive.

One of the counts alleges that Mr Agunloye received a total of N5.212 million from Sunrise Power and its promoter, Mr Adesanya, through Jide Abiodun’s account with Guaranty Trust Bank.

Mr Agunloye has denied all the charges.

During cross-examination of the second prosecution witness, Adewale Agunbiade—a former GTBank compliance officer now with Jaiz Bank—the defence challenged the legality of his testimony, noting that neither his current employer nor the EFCC served him an official witness summons.

Mr Agunbiade admitted he did not present a valid staff ID from Jaiz Bank and testified at the EFCC’s insistence because he had handled the relevant account documents while at GTBank.

Mr Onwuegbuzie earlier remanded Mr Agunloye in Kuje Correctional Centre, pending the hearing of his bail application.