- By Halimah Olamide
The remand of former Power Minister Dr. Olu Agunloye in Kuje Prison has been described as a possible means of creating a leeway for those who killed the late Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige to have their way over Agunloye.
Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, who drew the attention of Nigerians to the connection between the assassination of Ige, who was first the Minister of Power under President Olusegun Obasanjo, said killing of Ige was not unconnected with the Mambilla power project.
He said Agunloye worked with him closely in trying to unravel the killers of Ige, who was killed in his residence on December 23, 2001.
“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,” he said.
Agunloye was remanded in Kuje prison on Wednesday by justice Donatus Okorowo of the Federal High court pending the application for his bail.
Obasanjo had alleged that Agunloye was solely responsible for the award of the contract for the project; a claim Agunloye has denied.