Former minister of power and steel, Olu Agunloye, has refuted claims by former president Olusegun Obasanjo that he mismanaged the Mambilla Power Project.
Agunloye described the claims as ‘baseless, false, and malicious.
The erstwhile minister also provided ample evidence to nullify claims made by Obasanjo.
He clarified the nature of the initial contract for the Mambilla Power Project, which was awarded as a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract in May 2003 under his watch.
According to him under this model, the contractor, Messrs Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (Sunrise), was responsible for sourcing funds and executing the project with its own funds. The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) was not obliged to pay any amount to Sunrise.
Agunloye explained that the investment required for the firm to construct the Mambilla hydroelectric project up to completion was estimated at a maximum of $6 billion by four Ministers of Power and former President Obasanjo before his tenure as Minister of Power.
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He noted that claims by Obasanjo that he awarded a $6 billion contract (N800 billion in 2003) to Sunrise was ‘inaccurate and misleading’.
Agunloye also stated that for 20 years, he was never questioned or interrogated about issuing any unauthorised Mambilla contract by any Nigerian President, including Obasanjo, adding that this was because they all knew that he did nothing wrong.
He queried the change of contract model for the Mambilla Power Project after his tenure. Obasanjo had decided to split the Mambilla Hydropower Project into smaller components.
Agunloye’s rebuttal was contained in a comprehensive 53 paragraph, 14-page statement, supported with 15 attachments in an 82-page document as an affidavit to the courts in Nigeria and France. The same was sent to Obasanjo through his legal team.
He said: “On 28 May 2007, a day before handing over power to President Umaru Yar’Adua, Obasanjo had changed the terms of the Mambilla project from Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT), which would not have required any investment from the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) to a fully funded FGN EPC contract.”