In rapid succession, the running scandal over Malabu Oil’s OPL 245 has been in the news. First, it was ENI Nigeria Agip Oil Company giving itself a clean bill of financial health. It declared that a US-based law firm of forensic investigators had said that all transactions related to the $1.6 billion deal were fraud free.
\nA day after the ENI Board statement absolving the company and its chief executive officer, the Federal Government which has temporarily seized the oil block, through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed two separate charges at Abuja-based High Courts against former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Adoke, former Petroleum Minister, Dan Etete and three oil companies over alleged $801 million bribe.
\nThree oil companies: Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company (SNEPCO) Ltd, AGIP Exploration Ltd and ENI SPA and their directors were also charged separately over the grant of Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245.
\nEFCC accused Adoke and 11 others in three counts of conspiracy and engaging in fraud involving $2, 267,400 in September 2013.
\nAlso, Adoke and one Alhaji Abubakar were alleged to have on September 16, 2013 conspired to commit money laundering when they directly took possession of the sum of $2, 267, 400 and converted it to the Naira equivalent being the sum of N345.2 million using one Usman Bello, a bureau de change (BDC) operator.
\nThe offences are contrary to Section 18, 16 (2) 16(1) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act. The case has been assigned to Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
\n24 hours after these dramas played out, Adoke fired a statement that EFCC was being used by some vested interests to come after him for preventing the interests from short-changing the country. Adoke has been away from the country pursuing a course of study, for what analysts have suggested is a ploy not to be arrested and prosecuted.
\nHe was said to have been questioned by Italian investigators in Netherlands last year.
\nBut his statement yesterday reads in fulL: My attention has been drawn to yet another set of spurious and malicious charges filed against 10 others and me by the EFCC in
\nrelation to the OPL 245 Resolution Agreement involving Malabu Oil &
\nGas Limited (MALABU) and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited (SNUD). This
\nrenewed move to taint the transaction with illegality is coming at the
\nheels of the spirited moves being made by the EFCC to defend the
\nInterim Forfeiture Order they secured against the beneficiaries of the
\nBlock (Shell and ENI) who are challenging it.
\nWhile it is not within my province to join the fray, as the
\nbeneficiaries are capable of vigorously asserting their interests, I
\nam however concerned that the EFCC has continued to allow its
\ninvestigations\/operations in respect OPL 245 to be micro-managed
\nand\/or tele-guided by some non-state actors and powerful families with
\nprofessed ownership interests in the Block. These non-state actors are
\nhell bent on using state institutions as proxies in their nefarious
\nquest to out smart each other to the proceeds of MALABU\u2019s divestment
\nfrom OPL 245. I had informed Nigerians in my previous reactions that I
\nhad become a target of these powerful individuals for refusing to
\nallow the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and
\nMinister of Justice to be used to settle their private business
\ninterests and the fact that they had vowed to use their connections in
\nGovernment and with the EFCC to settle personal scores with me. It is
\nnow clear to me that the EFCC is working hands in glove with them and
\nlending its institutional support to this devilish scheme.
\nHas the EFCC gone overboard? How else can one explain the Commission\u2019s
\ndeliberate suppression of facts at their disposal and the
\norchestration of falsehood in a bid to portray me to the public as a
\ncorrupt official? What is responsible for this reckless and
\nreprehensible move by the EFCC to link my Mortgage repayment to Unity
\nBank of Nigeria to the alleged bribe of $2.2 million, when the
\ndocumentation in the Bank in respect of the mortgage is available for
\nany objective person to appraise and come to an informed conclusion?
\nWhile not going into the merits, it is pertinent to state that I had
\napplied for a Mortgage Loan in the sum of N 300,000,000 million from
\nUnity Bank of Nigeria to purchase a property from Aliyu Abubakar, a
\nproperty developer in Abuja. The Bank paid the loan sum directly to
\nthe developer and when I could not meet up with the repayments or pay
\nthe balance; the he opted to repossess the property. I consented to
\nthis option and the developer directly paid the Bank the Loan sum and
\nthe Certificate of Occupancy was released to him. The EFCC is aware of
\nthis transaction and the fact that the developer subsequently sold the
\nproperty to the Central Bank of Nigeria. If this were not the case,
\nthey would have applied to have the mortgaged property forfeited.
\nDespite this information, the EFCC in furtherance of its preconceived
\nplan to ridicule and tarnish my name has hinged on this Mortgage
\ntransaction to slam me with a preposterous charge of collecting a
\nbribe of $2.2 million on the OPL 245 resolution transaction.
\nI wish to restate, once more, that to the best of my knowledge,
\ninformation and belief, there was nothing illegal or shady about the
\nresolution of the dispute over the ownership and operation of OPL 245.
\nAll the State actors that midwifed the Settlement including my humble
\nself, acted in the national interests. We had the requisite
\nPresidential Approvals to enter into a negotiated settlement, execute
\nthe OPL 245 Resolution Agreement & the OPL 245 Re-Allocation and all
\nother ancillary steps required to ensure that the transaction was
\nconsummated.
\nIt is disheartening to note that the EFCC is only focused on impugning
\nthe OPL 245 Resolution Agreement without informing Nigerians on the
\nbenefits that the Nigerian State has derived from the Settlement. It
\nis on record that our actions saved Nigeria over $ 2 Billion in
\ndamages from the ICSID Arbitration that was instituted by SNUD;
\nresolved claims of MALABU against the Federal Government of Nigeria
\nover the Ownership of OPL 245, and settled the competing claims of
\nMALABU and SNUD over OPL 245 that had over two decades prevented the
\nBLOCK 245 from being operational despite the immense economic benefits
\nderivable from its operation. Instead, we hear of how the interests of
\nthe Abacha family in OPL 245 were not protected or that the records of
\nMALABU with the Corporate Affairs Commission were altered to exclude
\ncertain powerful individuals with close links to the EFCC and this
\nadministration.
\nIt will be recalled that I had asserted, while in office, that the
\nOffice of the Attorney General of the Federation would not be used to
\nsettle the personal interests of these powerful families and
\nindividuals and that the law courts were available for them to
\nventilate their so called \u201cownership or shareholding disputes in
\nMalabu Oil & Gas Limited\u201d. But, regrettably, it would appear that
\ntimes have changed; state-actors are now willing to align forces with
\nthem either for pecuniary gains and\/or political exigencies to use
\nstate machinery to impugn and set aside the transaction for their
\nbenefit. I am perceived to be an obstacle to the realization of this
\nignoble objective, hence this renewed and persistent attacks and
\nharassment on my person.
\nNigerians are invited to x-ray the transaction, ascertain who had
\ntitle to OPL 245?, the competing claims against the Federal Government
\nof Nigeria from Malabu and SNUD, the terms of OPL 245 Resolution
\nAgreement and OPL 245 Re- Allocation Agreement, whether signature
\nbonus on OPL 245 was paid to the FGN, whether the Escrow account was
\njointly operated by FGN and Shell. Furthermore, Nigerians should be
\ngiven details of the alleged bribes paid. We are interested to know
\nwho got what? From whom?, and the relevant dates. It is not enough
\nfor Agencies of government to label former State-actors as corrupt in
\nthe public space without putting information upon which they assert
\ntheir claim to the public for proper scrutiny. The EFCC relies on a
\ngullible populace that does not ask pertinent questions to perpetrate
\ninjustice and this should not be allowed to take firm roots in our
\npolity or else the war against corruption will not only be tainted
\nwith corruption but also hijacked to satisfy the whims and caprices of
\na few powerful individuals with the right family and political
\nconnections to this administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In rapid succession, the running scandal over Malabu Oil’s OPL 245 has been in the news. First, it was ENI Nigeria Agip Oil Company giving itself a clean bill of financial health. It declared that a US-based law firm of forensic investigators had said that all transactions related to the $1.6 billion deal were fraud […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}