$6billion Mambilla Power Contract: Ex-governor Liyel Imoke testifies against former power minister Agunloye

Former Minister of Power and Steel, Liyel Imoke, said Monday that the controversial Mambilla Hydropower station contract was awarded by his predecessor Olu Agunloye with the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

Mr Imoke said it was unnecessary to formally cancel the contract after he assumed office, because the contract never received the blessing of the FEC in the first place.

The former Cross River State governor was fielding questions at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, where he appeared as the sixth prosecution witness in Mr Agunloye’s corruption trial.

Mr Imoke succeeded Mr Agunloye as the power minister in July 2003 and served until January 2007, during former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.

Mr Imoke later became the Governor of Cross River State in May 2007 and served in that capacity until May 2015.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) called Mr Imoke as its sixth prosecution witness against Mr Agunloye, who faces seven charges including disobedience to a presidential directive, conspiracy, forgery and receiving gratification.

The charges stemmed from his roles in the award of the $6 billion Mambilla Hydroelectric Power contract in May 2003 to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL). An arbitration panel in Paris, France, recently cleared Nigeria of any liability regarding the contract while it accused PTCL of fraud in its …..

The project was a proposed 3,050 MW hydroelectric facility located in Kakara village, Taraba State, which never saw the light of the day.

The prosecution said Mr Agunloye disobeyed a presidential directive issued in 2003 during a Federal Executive Council meeting regarding the contract.

It added that Mr Agunloye disobeyed the directive by signing a letter addressed to SPTCL, purportedly conveying “the approval of the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the construction of the 3,960 megawatts Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station.”

The EFCC also accused Mr Agunloye of conspiring with Leno Adesanya, the major prompter of SPTCL who the agency indicated was at large, to falsify a document titled “Construction of 3,960MW Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Station on a Build, Operate and Transfer Basis” in 2003.

Other allegations include receiving gratifications of over N5 million from SPTCL and Mr Adesanya.

Mr Agunloye has denied all seven charges.

An arbitration tribunal recently exonerated Nigeria regarding the contract after finding that the award of the contract to SPTCL was tainted by bribery.

‘Null and void’

Trial Judge Jude Onwuegbuzie listened on Monday as Mr Imoke, under cross-examination by Mr Agunloye’s defence lawyer Adeola Adedipe, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), maintained that the Mambilla power station contract was null and void in the first place, and required no formal pronouncement for its cancellation.

“A contract awarded in contravention of the FEC will not require cancellation,” the politician said.

“I did not cancel the contract because the FEC did not approve it, and so it was null and void. The minister does not have the power to award a contract.

“It is null and void as far as the FEC and the presidency did not give approval to the award of the contract.”

Similarly, the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power project became a subject of international concern.

Controversial contract

The project, first awarded in 2003 to SPTCL by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, is the subject of decades of a legal dispute. An arbitration tribunal in Paris recently resolved the matter in favour of Nigeria and against SPTCL, which had accused Nigeria of breach of contract.

Mr Obasanjo, in 2023, accused Mr Agunloye of fraudulently awarding the contract to the company without approval.

However, the former minister dismissed these claims, alleging that he was being used as a scapegoat to escape sanctions by the arbitration panel in Paris for abandoning contractual agreements on the project.

The project, intended to generate 3,960 megawatts of electricity, was designed to be executed on a build, operate, and transfer basis.

Imoke’s review of the contract

On Monday, Mr Imoke went down the memory lane about the controversial contract.

Mr Imoke, who took office as the power minister in July 2003, recalled writing a letter dated 3 September 2003 in response to SPCL’s payment inquiry about the Mambilla power contract.

“When I received the letter (from SPCL), I requested the file relating to the project. While reviewing the file, I saw the extract of the minutes of the FEC meeting and other documents.

“I read the deliberations and the directives from the FEC to the then Minister of Power and Steel, which stated that the memo of the defendant (Mr Agunloye) be withdrawn and directed the Minister to invite more proposals with a view to ensuring constructive deliberations and to explore various investment options,” Mr Imoke said, while being led in evidence by prosecution lawyer Abba Mohammed, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

Following his review, Mr Imoke said, he confirmed that the FEC did not approve the contract.

He said he then forwarded his findings to SPCL.

Fielding questions under cross-examination by Mr Adedipe, the former governor stated that he did not report Mr Agunloye.

Mr Adedipe asked, “As a good citizen of Nigeria, is it not in your place to report an unlawful act?”

But EFCC’s lawyer, Mr Mohammed, objected.

The judge sustained the objection and urged Mr Adedipe to rephrase the question.

He then asked the witness if he had a civic duty to report an unlawful act. Mr Imoke replied in the affirmative.

Mr Adedipe further asked if Mr Imoke’s record indicated that Mr Agunloye engaged in a criminal activity by awarding the contract.

Again, Mr Mohammed objected. He stressed that only the court could make such a finding.

The judge sustained the objection, asking Mr Adedipe to rephrase the question.

He then asked the witness if he notified the FEC after becoming aware of the circumstances surrounding the contract.

Mr Imoke answered, “No, I did not.”

Thereafter, Mr Mohammed requested an adjournment to attend to an urgent matter.

The judge granted the request and adjourned the case to 2 November.

Highlight of the case

In December 2023, EFCC declared Mr Agunloye wanted over the case.

The following day, Mr Agunloye surrendered to the EFCC for interrogation regarding the failed multi-billion-dollar Mambilla Hydropower project.

The anti-corruption agency later arraigned Mr Agunloye in January 2024 on charges regarding the Mambilla power project contract.

Following an amendment to the original charges less than a month later, the EFCC re-arraigned Mr Agunloye on 3 February 2024.

It again rearraigned him on 18 September 2025, after a further amendment of the charges.

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The EFCC has already presented six prosecution witnesses in the trial.

Mr Agunloye faces seven counts of forgery, receiving gratification, and disobedience to presidential directives, all of which he pleaded not guilty to.

The trial has thrown up contention regarding the minutes of the 21 May 2003 Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting during which the then-president was said to have issued the directive regarding the Mambilla power project that Mr Agunloye is accused of disobeying.

The prosecution earlier tendered the minutes, which originated from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), as an exhibit in the trial.

Umar Babangida, an EFCC investigator who testified in the case as the third prosecution witness, told the court last year that Mr Obasanjo had been interviewed regarding the case.

He also cited a November 2023 letter Mr Obasanjo wrote to the incumbent Attorney-General of the Federation’s office, indicating his willingness to testify about the controversial Mambilla Hydroelectric Power project in any arbitration court or forum whenever the need arose or should his testimony be considered “necessary in the national interest”.

However, the prosecution has yet to confirm if Mr Obasanjo will be presented as a prosecution witness.

Mr Agunloye filed a suit against the EFCC, alleging abuse of his fundamental rights.

In March 2024, the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed the suit.

However, earlier this month, Mr Agunloye won a libel case against the EFCC over the agency’s portrayal of the trial in a publication.

In the case, Judge Peter Kekemeke of the FCT High Court found the EFCC liable for defaming Mr Agunloye in its publication regarding the former minister’s trial.

The judge awarded N10 million against the EFCC for publishing the libellous article on its social media platforms against Mr Agunloye.