Justice Jude Onwueguzie of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, in Apo, Abuja on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, dismissed a preliminary objection brought by Agunloye, challenging the powers of the EFCC to prosecute him
Adebayo Ilori, a compliance officer with Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) has narrated how multiple transfers were made in favour of former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye by Jide Sotirin, a staff member of Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd.
Agunloye is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on seven counts bordering on official corruption and fraudulent award of Mambila Power Project contract to the tune of $6 billion (six billion US dollars).
Justice Jude Onwueguzie of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, in Apo, Abuja on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, dismissed a preliminary objection brought by Agunloye, challenging the powers of the EFCC to prosecute him
Also on February 8, 2024, Agunloye through his counsel, Adeola Adedipe (SAN), filed a motion challenging the powers of the EFCC to investigate and prosecute him as well as that of the jurisdiction of the court to try him.
In response, prosecution counsel Abba Muhammed filed a counter-affidavit, dated February 22, 2024, where he dismissed Agunloye’s motion as incompetent and offensive to the provisions of Section 115(2) of the Evidence Act.
However, before Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, sitting in Apo, Abuja, on Monday, June 10, 2024, the witness, Adebayo Ilori, while being led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Abba Mohammed, disclosed that multiple transfers were made in favour of Olu Agunloye by Jide Sotirin, an employee of Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd, according to a statement by Dele Oyewale, EFCC Head of Media & Publicity on Wednesday.
He said, “Sometime in October 2022, the bank received a letter from EFCC requesting some information on the account opening package, statement of account and certificate of identification on two customers, Olu Agunloye and Jide Sotirin.
“Upon receiving the letter, Wale Agunbiade, head of the Unit went ahead to generate the statement of account from the computer system of the bank.
“Upon receiving the account opening package and statement of account, we compared the information generated because the statement of account was generated from the bank’s application by imputing the customer’s details on the computer system and all the parameters requested, which was then printed out.
“Then the bank compared what was printed and what was on the system to ascertain the accuracy of documents.
“The bank further prepared a covering letter and certificate of identification with the requested documents, which was signed by Wale Agunbiade, and then dispatched to the EFCC.”
Oyewale explained that when shown the acknowledgment copy of the said documents from the EFCC and GTBank’s response by prosecution counsel, the witness confirmed that they were genuine, following which they were admitted by the court as exhibits.
Further in his testimony, the witness stated that Sotirin was the signatory to the account from which he transferred a total sum of N5,221,000 (five million, two hundred and twenty-one thousand) to Agunloye, allegedly in relation to the Mambila Power Project contract award.
The witness established that Sotirin on August 10, 2019, transferred the sum of N3,600,000 from his account to Agunloye. On October 22, 2019, he transferred N500,000 to Agunloye and equally did so on November 13, 2019 to the tune of N1,121,000.
“On exhibit EFCC (1b), the name of the account holder is Agunloye Olu and it is a naira account. On 10 August 2019, there was a transfer credit of N3,600,000 from Sotirin Jide Abiodun in favour of Agunloye Olu.
“Also on 22 October 2019, there was a credit transfer of N500,000 from Sotirin Jide Abiodun to Olu Agunloye and on 13 Nov 2019, there was a credit transfer of N1,121,000 from Jide Sotirin Abiodun to Agunloye Olu,” the witness stated.
The matter was adjourned till June 11, 2024 for cross-examination.