Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The trial of former Minister of Power, Olu Agunloye, over the alleged fraudulent award of the $6 billion Mambilla Hydropower Project contract has taken a new turn as a prosecution witness clarified discrepancies surrounding the certification of extracts from a Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting relied upon by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Agunloye is facing a seven-count amended charge bordering on official corruption and the alleged unlawful award of the Mambilla Power Project contract to Sunrise Power Transmission Company Limited.
Testifying before Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Apo, Abuja, the Fifth Prosecution Witness, PW5, Mr. Iliya John Iyakwari, explained the circumstances that led to the certification of the FEC meeting extracts in January 2024, despite an earlier request by the EFCC in 2023.
Iyakwari, an Assistant Director of Legal in the Federal Ministry of Justice who currently serves as Assistant Legal Adviser in the Federal Ministry of Power, said the EFCC initially requested certified extracts of the May 21, 2003 FEC meeting in July 2023.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel, Chief Adeola Adedipe, SAN, the witness stated that although the requested documents were forwarded to the EFCC in July 2023, they were not certified at the time, prompting the anti-graft agency to return them.
“It was after it was received by EFCC in July 2023 that they realized that the extract was not certified. So, in January 2024, a staff of the EFCC brought back the Exhibit Three K to my legal adviser and the name of the EFCC staff is Babangida,” Iyakwari told the court.
“He brought it and reminded my director that it was not certified. My director now gave me the document to go and certify. That is why my lord will see on the face of the document that the date the document was certified on January 26, 2024, is different from the date it was forwarded.”
The witness further admitted that during the certification process, he mistakenly stamped the original forwarding letter dated June 27, 2023.
“So, it was in the process of certification that I mistakenly stamped the original forwarding letter dated June 27, 2023. After stamping the document, I gave it back to my director, who I believed handed it over to Babangida because I left them afterwards,” he said.
The testimony came amid efforts by the defence to challenge an apparent discrepancy between the certification date and earlier testimony regarding the handling of the documents.
Responding to the line of questioning, prosecuting counsel, Mr. Abba Mohammed, SAN, objected to suggestions that the witness had contradicted himself, insisting that court records clearly reflected his earlier explanations.
“My lord, I object to this particular question. What I see in our record and what I believe is reflected in the records of the court is that in his explanation, he summarized that all these activities were done in June 2023; he never said the certification was done in 2023,” Mohammed argued.
He added that the objection was founded on Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution and urged the court to rely on its records regarding the witness’s testimony.
The prosecution also objected when the witness was asked whether a document previously tendered in court by an EFCC operative, identified as Babangida, was different from the extract he certified.
Mohammed argued that the witness could not be cross-examined on evidence tendered through another witness, noting that Iyakwari was not present in court when Babangida testified and therefore lacked firsthand knowledge of that testimony.
Following the proceedings, Justice Onwuegbuzie adjourned the matter to June 18 and July 2, 2026, for continuation of trial.
The Mambilla Hydropower Project, one of Nigeria’s largest proposed power infrastructure projects, has remained at the centre of legal disputes and corruption allegations for years, with the EFCC alleging that the contract award process was irregular.
