The Economic and Financial Crimes Commis s ion (EFCC), has filed a nine-count charge of Money Laundering and fraud against a former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN) and a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Dan Etete.
The Federal Government yesterday filed a 9 count criminal charge against a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke SAN and two others over their complicity in the $1.1 billion Melabu oil deal before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja. Others charged along Adoke are a former petroleum minister, Dan Etete; and a businessman, Abubakar Aliyu.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC in the charge alleged that Adoke and former finance minister, Yerima Ngama, approved the transfer of about $1.1 billion into Nigerian accounts controlled by Etete. In addition, it was alleged that after the transfer to Etete, over half of the money was paid to accounts of companies controlled by Aliyu.
In the charge sheet marked FHC/ABJ/ CR/268/26, the anti-graft agency alleged that Adoke, Etete and seven others, variously collected or were paid hundreds of millions of United States dollars, said to be proceeds of crimes from oil deals.
Specifically, the EFCC said in charge one: “That you, Dauzla Loya Etete (aka Dan Etete) and Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, on or about 24th August, 2011 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court, directly or indirectly took control of sum of $400,000,000 only paid from the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Escrow account No: 41451493 IBAN 30CHA5609242411492 with JP Morgan Chase Bank in London into the account of Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd domiciled in PHB Plc (now Key Stone Bank) account No. 1005552028 when you knew that the funds formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity to wit: Fraud and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 15 (2) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended…and punishable under section 15 (3) of the same Act.”
The EFCC further alleged in Count 2 “That you..Etete and Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd on or about the 10th August 2011, in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, directly or indirectly took control of the sum of $401,000,000 paid from the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Escrow account No: 41451493 IBAN GB… with JP Morhgan Chase Bank in London into the account of Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd Domiciled in First Bank Nig. Plc account No: 2011828805 when you knew the funds formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity to wit; fraud and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 15 (2) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as Amended in 2012 and punishable under section 15 (3) of the same Act.”.
Count 8, which affects Adoke, reads: “That you Mohammed Adoke Bello, SAN CFR on or about the 10th August, 2011 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, aided Daazia Loya Etete… and Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd. to commit the offence of money laundering by facilitating the payment of an aggregate sum of $801, 540,000… only to Daazia Loya Etete and Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd. through the Federal Government’s Escrow account…with JP Morgan Chase Bank in London which you reasonably ought to have known represented proceeds of an unlawful activity, to wit; fraud and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 18 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as Amended in 2012 and punishable under section 15 (3) of the same Act.”
Other accused persons, apart from Adoke and Etete, are Aliyu Abubakar, Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd., Rocky Top Resource Ltd., Imperial Union Ltd., Novel Properties and Dev. Company. Ltd., Group Construction Ltd., and MegaTech Engineering Ltd.
The suit, which was dated December 16, has not been assigned to a judge. The EFCC had, on April 21, kick-started its investigation on the $1.3 billion Malabu oil deals, as it quizzed the Managing Director of the Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited (NAE). A day earlier, the anti-corruption agency had invited the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCO), Mr. Bayo Bashir Ojulari.
The anti-graft agency’s mandate is to unearth the whereabouts of N218.4 billion paid by Agip and SNEPCO into an escrow account. Weeks before the EFCC’s action, officials of Shell, at the company’s global headquarters at the heart of one of the largest oil heist in Nigeria, were on March 30, questioned by Dutch investigators for their roles in the deal.
Shell and Italian oil giant, Eni, allegedly agreed to secretly pay $1.3 billion to Malabu, a company owned by Etete, through the Nigerian government in 2011.
The money was meant for Oil Prospecting Lease (OPL) 245, one of the largest oil blocs in Africa, which was awarded to Malabu in 1998, when Etete was the Petroleum Minister under the late dictator, Sani Abacha. After Shell and Eni paid the money into Nigeria’s accounts in JP Morgan Bank, London, the Federal Government transferred $801 million of the money into Malabu accounts controlled by Mr. Etete in Nigeria.
While Etete later claimed he only got $250 million from the money, investigations showed the rest was paid as bribes to several officials of the Nigerian government under the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration and some private officials including Bayo Ojo, a former Attorney General, who allegedly got $10 million.
“The suggestion from the wiretaps is “Fortunato” was implicated and I am told that this was a reference in code (not subtle) to the former President of Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan,” Justice Edis of the Southwark Crown Court, UK, said in December 2015, while refusing to release the last tranche of $80 million left in the Nigerian government account to Etete.
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