Olu Agunloye, a former Minister of Power and Steel, has accused the federal government of targeting him to divert attention from the actions of top officials involved in the $6 billion Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project. In a statement released on Friday, Agunloye, who now serves as the National Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), also alleged that former President Olusegun Obasanjo is deliberately distorting facts to shield himself from scrutiny.
Agunloye, who held office under Obasanjo's administration from 2002 to 2003, is facing a seven-count charge filed by the Federal Government over alleged fraud linked to the Mambilla project. He claims the charges are part of an effort to use him as a scapegoat in a long-standing dispute over the project.
“The government seeks to use me as a scapegoat to depict systemic corruption to the arbitration panel and to undermine Sunrise Power Company’s claims,” Agunloye said.
He further alleged that his legal troubles are rooted in personal conflicts involving Obasanjo, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and Leno Adesanya, the owner of Sunrise Power Company. According to Agunloye, “Obasanjo feigned ignorance of the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract signed during his administration and later distorted the facts in public and judicial settings to avoid accountability.”
Agunloye also linked the ongoing arbitration in France to actions taken by successive administrations, particularly under President Muhammadu Buhari. He revealed that in 2017, then-Minister of Power Babatunde Fashola bypassed a 2012 agreement signed under President Goodluck Jonathan with Sunrise Power and awarded the contract to another company.
“The Chinese government advised the Federal Government to resolve the dispute amicably, but the government failed to honor two settlement agreements,” he said. “This led Sunrise Power to return to arbitration.”
Agunloye accused the government of spreading misinformation to distract from its mishandling of the project over the last two decades, implicating four past presidents in the process.
“The government is using me as a pawn to deflect attention from the actions of its officials and the decisions taken by four administrations, including those of Presidents Obasanjo, Jonathan, and Buhari,” he concluded.
