Pat Stevens/
A prosecution witness has told a Federal High Court in Abuja that former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, allegedly forged the contract document used to award the $6 billion Mambilla Power Project in 2003.
Testifying before Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie on Monday, the third prosecution witness, Umar Hussein Babangida, said the contract letter issued to Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited (SPTCL) on May 22, 2003 contained false information and misrepresented key facts.
Agunloye is standing trial on an amended seven-count charge of official corruption and fraudulent contract award.
Babangida, who authored the EFCC investigation report already admitted in evidence, said that although the document presented in court was a certified true copy, investigators found it to be “a false representation of itself”.
He explained that the team examined the content of the document and discovered discrepancies but did not compare it with another version because the alleged forgery lay in the false claims it contained.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel, Adeola Adedipe, SAN, the witness said records obtained from the Federal Executive Council meeting of May 21, 2003 showed that 40 ministers, including Agunloye, were in attendance.
He confirmed that he interviewed former Attorney-General of the Federation, Kanu Agabi, SAN, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo during the investigation, although no written record of the interviews was produced because they were conducted orally.
He added that Obasanjo later wrote a letter to the current Attorney-General regarding the matter.
Babangida also said he did not interview the then Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar.
Justice Onwuegbuzie adjourned the case to December 1, 2025 for continuation of cross-examination.
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