A former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, has been declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), over alleged fraud. The anti-graft agency in a post on its verified Facebook page called on Nigerians who know the whereabouts of Agunloye to report to the nearest police station or inform the EFCC.

The EFCC stated, “Dr. U Agunloye is wanted by the EFCC. If You know his whereabouts? Please don’t hesitate to inform the EFCC or the nearest Police Station.” Recall that former President, Olusegun Obasanjo accused Agunloye of mismanaging the power project during his tenure from 1999 to 2003 and failed to brief him on the state of the project.

In an interview with TheCable recently, Obasanjo claimed that Agunloye fraudulently awarded the contract for the power project without the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). Obasanjo challenged Agunloye to tell Nigerians where he derived the authority to award a $6 billion contract to Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd in respect of the project in 2003.

In his response, Agunloye said the nature of the initial contract for the Mambilla Power Project, which was awarded as a Build, Operate and Transfer contract in May 2003 under his watch. He said the government was not obliged to pay a kobo to Sunrise under the build, operate and transfer (BOT) agreement as it was to be fully funded by the newly registered company, whose declared assets were worth less than $2,000 at the time.

Agunloye was, however, silent on where and how he got authorization to commit the government to a $6 billion project when, according to Obasanjo, ministers could not approve more than N25 million when he was president.