{"id":1706,"date":"2025-02-04T06:26:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T06:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/?p=1706"},"modified":"2025-02-04T06:26:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T06:26:24","slug":"alleged-n6bn-fraud-why-efcc-re-arraigns-ex-minister-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/2025\/02\/04\/alleged-n6bn-fraud-why-efcc-re-arraigns-ex-minister-of-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged N6bn fraud: Why EFCC re-arraigns ex-minister of power"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\u00a0In it&#8217;s frantic efforts to rid the nation of corruption, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday re-arraigned former Minister of Power and Steel, Dr Olu Agunloye before a Federal Capital Territory(FCT) , high court Apo.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Agunloye was re-arriagned on allegations bordering on award of contract for construction of 3,960MW Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station in Taraba.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The anti-graft agency re-arraigned him on an amended seven-count charge bordering on forgery, disobeying presidential directive and gratification.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The EFCC alleged that Agunloye awarded contract for the Mambilla project in May 22, 2003 to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited without any budgetary provision, approval and cash backing.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The commission also alleged that the former minister received the total sum of N5.212million from Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL) and Leno Adesanya, through Jide Abiodun Sotinrin.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">It added that this was done through Agunloye\u2019s Guaranty Trust Bank account, for conveying the Federal Government\u2019s approval for the construction of the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station in favour of SPTCL while serving as minister.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The former minister pleaded not guilty to seven-count amended charge when read to him in the court.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Earlier, the second prosecution witness in the case (PW2), Adewale Agunbiade, a former Compliance Officer with GT Bank but now with Jaiz Bank Plc, testified.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">While being cross examined by counsel for Agunloye, Adeola Adedipe SAN, the witness told the court that there was no letter from Jaiz Bank permitting him to testify, while EFCC did not issue him with witness summons to testify in the case.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Agunbiade told the court that when he informed the EFCC operatives that he longer worked for\u00a0 GT Bank, he was told that he was the one who prepared the documents relating to the court\u2019s proceedings.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Asked if he presented his identification card to the court to show that he is a staff member of Jaiz Bank, the PW2, who had given his evidence-in-chief on Sept 23, 2024, said he did not do that.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">After cross examination of the witness, Justice Jude Onwugbuese adjourned further hearing until Feb 24.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0In it&#8217;s frantic efforts to rid the nation of corruption, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday re-arraigned former Minister of Power and Steel, Dr Olu Agunloye before a Federal Capital Territory(FCT) , high court Apo. Agunloye was re-arriagned on allegations bordering on award of contract for construction of 3,960MW Mambilla Hydroelectric Power [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[240,765,1037,149,1036,873],"class_list":["post-1706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-crime","tag-construction","tag-contract","tag-forgery","tag-power","tag-re-arrign","tag-variation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1707,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions\/1707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}