Court gavel
A key witness in the ongoing trial of former Minister of Power and Steel, Dr. Olu Agunloye, on Monday admitted he could not confirm whether the controversial Mambilla power project award letter was forged.
Testifying before an FCT High Court in Apo, Abuja, Assistant Commissioner of Police Umar Babangida—who appeared as the third prosecution witness (PW3)—told the court during cross-examination that he never compared the contract letter issued to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL) with any other official document.
Pressed by Agunloye’s lead counsel, Adeola Adedipe (SAN), the witness said plainly that he had no basis to state whether the letter was authentic or fabricated.
According to him, “I did not compare it with any document to ascertain it was forged.”
Agunloye is facing a seven-count amended charge levelled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie. The charges revolve around alleged forgery, conspiracy, disobedience of presidential directives, and receiving gratification during his time in office.
Prosecutors allege that Agunloye, in collaboration with Leno Adesanya of SPTCL, issued a questionable letter approving the construction of the massive 3,960MW Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station on a build-operate-transfer basis. He is also accused of receiving N5.2 million through a GTBank account tied to him as gratification for conveying Federal Government approval for the project.
The former minister has pleaded not guilty.
Babangida, who authored the investigation report already in evidence, told the court that the EFCC found Agunloye awarded the Mambilla contract to SPTCL on May 22, 2003.
When asked directly whether the prosecution’s count two explicitly accused Agunloye of forging the award letter, Babangida confirmed that it did. But the witness again stressed that he did not perform any document-to-document comparison to prove forgery.
He maintained instead that the letter itself was misleading, saying, “The document is a false representation of fact. It was compared with the information contained in it.”
The police officer also stated that 40 ministers were present at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of May 21, 2003—one day before the alleged award letter was issued—though he personally did not attend the session. He said he interviewed one of the ministers who was in attendance, naming then Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), as one of the officials consulted.
Babangida added that investigators also interviewed former President Olusegun Obasanjo, noting that the ex-leader provided both an oral account and a written submission to the current Attorney-General.
However, he clarified, “I did not interview His Excellency Atiku Abubakar, the then Vice-President.”
Justice Onwuegbuzie adjourned the matter until December 1 for continuation of the cross-examination of the prosecution witness.
