Former Minister of Power and Steel, Dr Olu Agunloye, is to join the inmates of the Kuje Correctional Centre (prison), Abuja, following a ruling of a Federal High Court in the Federal Capital Territory.
Agunloye is to remain there pending when his bail application would be heard and granted.
Persecondnews reports that Agunloye was arraigned on Wednesday before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over
allegations of fraud in a power project during his tenure as minister.
During the hearing, the former minister pleaded not guilty to all the charges brought against him.
Agunloye, who served in the President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration from 1999 to 2003, is being quizzed in connection with the Mambilla power project.
Obasanjo had accused him of fraudulently awarding the contract for the project without the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval.
However, giving a ruling on Wednesday, Justice Donatus Okorowo, ordered that the former minister should be remanded in the Correctional Centre pending when the bail would be granted.
The EFCC had in December 2023, declared Agunloye wanted over alleged forgery and corruption.
In a communique shared by the Commission on X and its website, the former minister’s image was displayed with a message urging the public to provide information that could lead to his arrest.
Shortly after the EFCC’s alert, he was apprehended and detained.
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