EX-MINISTER AGUNLOYE IS ARRESTED BY THE EFCC FOR MAMBILLA PROJECT FRAUD

Babatunji Wusu –

Olu Agunloye, a former minister of power and steel, is reportedly under arrest by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

This was revealed in a statement released on Monday under the heading “In pursuit of justice, productivity, under the rule of law” by Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka.

Remember that the former Olusegun Obasanjo administration minister was recently proclaimed sought by the anti-graft bureau due to his involvement in the $6 billion Mambilla hydropower contract?

But according to Soyinka, after he was declared sought, the former minister made a statement about his visibility and his willingness to cooperate with the agency.

According to the playwright, Agunloye was arrested and detained as soon as he showed up at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja the day after he was declared wanted.

He said, “Agunloye, as a dutiful citizen, issued a statement on his visibility and ready compliance. He promised to show up at the EFCC offices in Abuja the following day. He appeared, and was promptly arrested and detained. The information I have been able to obtain during the past two days of my return to the country is that the head of the EFCC declared that he would release him only on the instructions of the President of the nation.

“True or false? I am not in the game of “He said, I said. What matters is the murky exercise of power. I have had cause to intervene before this, all the way from Are, through Ribadu and Magu, that last until he stopped taking my calls. The present however transcends all other interventions, as it involves certain issues of national interest, in tandem with the evident issues of fundamental citizen rights.

“I wish to claim that finally, after many years of frustration, the nation was being offered an opportunity to put the Mambilla project to rest, be it through terminal abandonment or resuscitation, corralling its lessons in fulfilling one of the most basic conditions for national industrial development with private creative input – addressing frontally and holistically the basic question of sustainable supply of power. In addition – and I concede that this is a personal, yet national concern.’’