Olu Agunloye’s Claim Falls Apart As EFCC Witness Tells Court FEC Records In $6bn Mambilla Deal Case Are Genuine

The trial of former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, took a fresh turn on Wednesday as a key prosecution witness told the Federal High Court in Apo, Abuja, that records from a 2003 Federal Executive Council meeting tendered in evidence were authentic and had not been tampered with.
Testifying before Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie, the third prosecution witness, Umar Hussein Babangida, insisted that extracts from the May 21, 2003 meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) were genuine, contrary to claims by the defendant that the documents had been altered.
Agunloye is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on an amended seven-count charge bordering on alleged official corruption and the controversial award of the $6 billion Mambilla Power Project contract to Sunrise Power Transmission Company Limited.
While under cross-examination by defence counsel, Adeola Adedipe, SAN, Babangida told the court that the EFCC requested the FEC meeting extracts from both the Federal Ministry of Power and the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF). According to him, the two institutions independently supplied the same documents, and their contents were identical.
“I recall that the defendant claimed the extract was altered, but that claim is not correct,” Babangida told the court. “We compared the responses from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Ministry of Power and discovered that the minutes of the Federal Executive Council meeting were exactly the same.”
When asked whether the allegation of alteration was investigated, the EFCC investigator responded in the affirmative.
During the proceedings, the witness was shown two documents already admitted as exhibits — EFCC 3D and EFCC 3K. He identified EFCC 3D as the response from the OSGF, while EFCC 3K was the document provided by the Federal Ministry of Power.
Reading from page eight of Exhibit EFCC 3K, Babangida pointed out the heading: “Construction of 3,960 megawatts Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis.” He also noted that the page carried a Certified True Copy stamp from the Federal Ministry of Power, signed by Iliya Iykakhan, an Assistant Director in the Legal Department, and dated January 26, 2024.
Tension rose during the hearing when the issue of clarifying the documents came up. Defence counsel argued that Babangida should not be allowed to explain the contents of the exhibits since he was not the author of the documents. According to the defence, only officials from the Federal Ministry of Power or the OSGF could properly clarify them.
However, the prosecution urged the court to allow the witness provide explanations in the interest of justice. The prosecution relied on provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the Evidence Act, arguing that the court has the authority to permit a witness to clarify documents tendered during an investigation.
After listening to both sides, Justice Onwuegbuzie adjourned the case until March 16, 2026, when he will rule on whether the witness can provide clarifications on the disputed documents.