Appearing in court on Wednesday, Mr. Agunloye entered a plea of not guilty to the charges leveled against him. Subsequently, the Judge ordered his remand in the Kuje Correctional Center until a bail decision is reached.

The EFCC had declared Agunloye wanted in December 2023, alleging forgery and corruption in a case. Following the Commission’s public alert, he was promptly apprehended and detained.

The investigation into the matter revealed that Agunloye, who served during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration (1999-2003), faced questioning in connection with the Mambilla project.

President Obasanjo accused him of improperly awarding the project contract without the necessary Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval. Agunloye vehemently denied these allegations, asserting that the former president was distorting the facts.

The legal proceedings against Agunloye have triggered widespread reactions from Nigerians, with Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka questioning the actions of the EFCC in this matter.

The case highlights the intersection of rights and the pursuit of justice as the former minister faces legal scrutiny.

In his statement titled – “In pursuit of justice, productivity, under the rule of law,” Soyinka argued that the practice of citizen detention at the whim of either religious blackmail or secular arrogation demands curtailment at source, most especially when exercised in defiance of the law, and the pronouncements of its agencies.

“The immediate provocation for these reflections is the ongoing predicament of a former Minister of Power, Dr. Olu Agunloye, currently detained by the EFCC, in total contempt of sense and justice, or indeed, basic humane considerations. We shall not go into the merit or demerits of the charges raised against him over a 16-year-old project that bears the name Mambilla. –that is the business of the law courts,” Soyinka wrote.

“Our concern at this moment is however only partially on the basis of individual fundamental human rights. Most fortuitously, the detention of any former public servant under circumstances such as Agunloye also provokes the question: how is public interest – such as the pursuit of justice – served by such an arbitrary exercise of power?’’