Nobel Laurette Prof. Wole Soyinka has faulted the remanding of a former Minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, in Kuje Correctional Centre.
Agunloye was brought before the court on Wednesday where he pleaded not guilty to corruption charges read against him.
Justice Donatus Okorowo of the Federal High Court subsequently ordered that he be remanded in Kuje Correctional center, pending when the bail would be granted.
Reacting to the development, Soyinka in a statement made available to newsmen, expressed concern over the safety of the former Minister, suggesting that there are forces that may be working to accord him the same fate as late former Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, who was assassinated in 2001.
“Dr. Olu Agunloye, we learn, was finally charged to court today. The case was adjourned, and the presiding judge, in his or her wisdom, proceeded to remand the accused in Kuje prison, pending resumption of his case.
“I wish to alert the nation, and the government that there exists a justifiable, high-level concern for his safety. His predecessor in office, the late Chief Bola Ige, was murdered in his bedroom by professional assassin even while his police protection detail took time off, all at the same time, to a nearby eatery. Till today, those mystery killers have yet to be identified, arrested, and tried.
“I have made it clear, even as recently as a few weeks ago, that Bola Ige’s murder was not unconnected with the Mambilla scam. Olu Agunloye worked closely with me, both within and outside routine police motions, to unmask Ige’s killers.
“It would therefore amount to unpardonable complacency to propose that there are no forces sufficiently desperate to accord him the same fate as Bola Ige. That goal is made easier by the abrupt decision to remand him in prison.
The Nobel Laurette called for “an independent, non-partisan commission to probe at length and in-depth, in public sittings, this scandal of expanding dimensions that has crippled the energy needs of a nation of two hundred million citizens over the past two decades. The latest development is sinister and alarming.
“Let it be understood that if anything happens to this pivotal witness while in custody, the inference will be heard loud, clear, and unambiguous.”
The EFCC in December 2023, declared Agunloye wanted on an alleged case of forgery and corruption. In a communique shared by the Commission on X and its website, the former minister’s image was displayed with a message urging the public to provide information that could lead to his arrest.
Shortly after the EFCC’s alert, Agunloye was apprehended and detained.
It was learned that the minister who served under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government (1999-2003), was being quizzed in connection with the Mambilla project.
Obasanjo had accused him of fraudulently awarding the contract for the project without the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval. But Agunloye denied the accusations and claimed the former president was distorting facts.
