Olu Agunloye, a former Minister of Power and Steel, has been released from the Kuje Correctional Centre after completing his bail conditions, according to media sources.
Our correspondent learned that Agunloye was discharged on Friday.
Adamu Duza, spokesperson for the Federal Capital Territory Command of the Nigerian Correctional Service, verified this to our correspondent.
Duza said,
“Agunloye has been released from the prison after meeting his bail condition. He was released this evening around 5:30pm.”
Agunloye was remanded in Kuje Custodial Centre over a $6 billion Mambilla hydropower contract, according to an Abuja Federal High Court ruling.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission brought Agunloye before the Federal High Court in Abuja, where he pleaded not guilty to the accusations leveled against him.
The judge, however, ordered that the beleaguered former minister be held in the Kuje detention centre until bail could be granted.
It should be noted that the EFCC designated Agunloye sought in connection with a $6 billion power scheme involving the Mambilla hydroelectric project.
The EFCC accused Agunloye, who was a minister under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration from 1999 to 2003, of illegally awarding a contract for the construction of a 3,960 MW Mambilla hydroelectric power station on a build, operate, and transfer basis.
The agency informed the court that the contract, issued to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited, was done without any budgetary provision, consent, or financial backing.
Agunloye was also accused of corruptly receiving N3.6 million in kickbacks from the company to which he granted the contract.
However, the defendant, who had also served as Minister of State for Defence, pleaded not guilty to the allegation when he was docked, and the court remanded him in Kuje jail until the outcome of his bail application.
The Mambilla hydroelectric project, which began in 2003, has been plagued by legal problems and suspicions of corruption.