Abuja, Jan. 11, 2024 – A High Court in Abuja on Thursday granted N50 million bail to a former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye.
Agunloye was arraigned by the EFCC on Wednesday over his alleged complicity in $6 billion fraud in the Mambilla Power project.
He has been in EFCC custody since December.
Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie granted the N50 million bail with two sureties in the same sum.
The sureties must be reputable persons of means who are residents of the FCT.
The court directed that the sureties must own landed properties worth N300 million with verifiable Certificates of Occupancy.
The judge also ordered that the sureties must submit copies of their identity cards as well as photocopies of their international passports to the court registry.
The court also directed Agunloye to submit his international passport to the court and must make himself available at all times for his trial.
Justice Onwuegbuzie fixed Feb 12 for the commencement of the trial.
Meanwhile, the Nobel Laurette, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has warned the Federal Government on the dangers of holding the former minister in prison custody.
He gave the warning in a statement on Thursday.
“I wish to alert the nation, and the government that there exists a justifiable, high-level concern for his safety. His predecessor in office, the late Chief Bola Ige, was murdered in his bedroom by professional assassin even while his police protection detail took time off, all at the same time, to a nearby eatery. Till today, those mystery killers have yet to be identified, arrested, and tried.
“I have made it clear, even as recently as a few weeks ago, that Bola Ige’s murder was not unconnected with the Mambilla scam. Olu Agunloye worked closely with me, both within and outside routine police motions, to unmask Ige’s killers. It would therefore amount to unpardonable complacency to propose that there are no forces sufficiently desperate to accord him the same fate as Bola Ige. That goal is made easier by the abrupt decision to remand him in prison.
“I have called for an independent, non-partisan commission to probe at length and in-depth, in public sittings, this scandal of expanding dimensions that has crippled the energy needs of a nation of two hundred million citizens over the past two decades. The latest development is sinister and alarming.”
“Let it be understood that if anything happens to this pivotal witness while in custody, the inference will be heard loud, clear, and unambiguous.” (GBN)
