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| Mohammed Bello Adoke |
FORMER
Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) has petitioned
the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) over the invitations from the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC in view of the ongoing probe on
the $2.5billion Malabu oil Block deal.
But Adoke
has protested to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo(SAN) over what he termed
as a “curious invitation” by the EFCC.
According to
the report from anti-graft agency, the Commission has concluded that there is
no going back on the investigations on the deal.
“We have
interrogated some former public officers who cooperated with us. We will still
invite others because a lot of people were part of the oil block deal. We are
talking of a transaction which ran across four administrations. This is
not a witch-hunt but fact-finding in order to determine whether the country was
short-changed,” a source from EFCC reportedly said.
In a protest
letter to the Vice President, Adoke described the invitations from the
anti-graft agency as spurious adding that his ongoing semester examinations in
the University of Leiden where he was doing his masters in Law had not afforded
him the time to honour the invitation.
“A few weeks
ago, I was informed through the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions
of the Federation (DPPF) that the Federal Ministry of Justice was in receipt of
a letter from the EFCC inviting me to its office for an interview on the Malabu
Oil Transaction with Shell/ENI.
“I was
however unable to immediately honour that invitation as I was writing my end of
semester examinations at the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands where I
am currently studying for an Advanced LL.M Degree in Public International Law.
I therefore requested that the invitation be deferred to 28th December 2015
pending the completion of my examination.
“However, on
deep reflection, I found the invitation rather curious, unconventional and
mischievous especially as I acted purely in an official capacity and the EFCC
could easily have had recourse to the sitting HAGF for clarifications since the
records were in the Federal Ministry of Justice as government is a continuum.
“I therefore
phoned the HAGF and notified him of the development and offered a detail
explanation of what had transpired. I also impressed on him the need to protect
the office from unwarranted attacks and machinations of those out to destroy it
in view of its unique constitutional role in governance.
“I followed
up by sending him a written brief with a copy of the attached Comprehensive
Position Paper to enable him familiarise himself with the transaction in the
event that official files in the Federal Ministry of Justice could not, for one
reason or the other, be easily traced.
“ It was
after this development that I was made to understand that there were plans by
some individuals who had become aware that I would be honouring the invitation
of the EFCC on 28th December 2015 to humiliate me.
“I was also
informed that these individuals had enlisted an online media to smear my name
with allegations of corruption and bribery and that some agents of the Abacha
family and one Lawal Abba acting for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice
President were behind the scheme. According to the information, their motive
was predicated on the following:
(a)
the claim that they were shareholders in Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and
had been short-changed by the main shareholder of the company, and
(b)
that I had refused to use my official position as Attorney General of the Federation to help them get their dues from
the main shareholder.
“Your
Excellency, as preposterous as these assertions were, I was forced to give
credence to them when on 27th December 2015, some online media published that I
was scheduled to appear for interrogation at the EFCC on 28th December 2015 and
will thereafter be detained and charged to court.
“ It was
also falsely published that I was involved in the Halliburton bribery scandal,
when the said scandal predated my tenure.
“It will be
recalled that it was during my tenure that the Office of the Attorney General
of the Federation in collaboration with the office of the National Security
Adviser (NSA) under the leadership of General Aliyu Gusau and the EFCC
proceeded against the Companies that were involved in the bribery scandal and
got them to pay reparations for ‘reputational damage’ to the country totalling
almost $180 Million even when by the penal sanctions contained in our laws, the
companies could only have paid pittance. The records are there to show what was
achieved and that the monies were paid into the Federal Government accounts
with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“It is
apparent from these publications that the intention is not necessarily the
clarifications sought by the EFCC but a carefully orchestrated plan for my
assured unjustified persecution, humiliation and disgrace by a known group with
interest in the Malabu matter that are aggrieved over my official role in the
resolution of the case.
“The said
group has now joined forces with those desperate to malign me by using the
present investigation by the EFCC to humiliate my person. My refusal to take a
particular position they had sought and impressed upon me after the resolution
of the matter was concluded is the root of all this blackmail.”
“Your
Excellency, I make bold to state that any responsible Attorney General of the
Federation would have done what I did to safeguard the interest of the country
and avoid a liability that potentially stood against the country. It is in this
regard that I respectfully urge Your Excellency to carefully consider and
ascertain from the documentation supplied, the following facts:
(i) that
Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 245 was granted to Malabu
Oil & Gas Limited by the administration of General
Sani Abacha, GCFR in 1998;
(ii)
that OPL 245 was subsequently revoked by the administration of
President Olusegun
Obasanjo, GCFR in 2001and re-
allocated to Shell
Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited (SNUD) in
2002 under a Production
Sharing Contract (PSC) arrangement;
(iii)
that at the time of revocation and re-award, Malabu
and SNUD had a binding Joint
Operating Agreement to exploit the block with SNUD as
technical partner to the Venture;
(iv)
that aggrieved over the revocation, Malabu petitioned
the House of Representatives Committee on
Petroleum. After a public hearing, the House condemned the
revocation and re- allocation to SNUD and recommended that the block
be restored to Malabu;
(v)
that Malabu also sued the FGN and SNUD at the FHC in Suit
No
FHC/ABJ/CS/420/2003 claiming several declaratory
reliefs including an order
setting aside the re-allocation to SNUD and a
restoration of the block to Malabu. The suit was struck out but on
appeal, the parties entered into a settlement dated
30th November 2006 which were
executed by my predecessor in office, Chief Bayo Ojo, SAN, CON;
(vi)
that the Terms of Settlement were filed in court as consent judgment and a key term in the settlement was the
restoration of the Oil block 245 to Malabu
by the FGN;
(vii)
that pursuant to the Terms of Settlement, President Olusegun
Obasanjo in 2006 rescinded his earlier revocation and restored
the Oil block 245 to Malabu;
(viii)
that at this time SNUD had already expended huge resources of over $500 million
to de-risk the Oil block under the
existing arrangement with the
FGN and had found oil in commercial quantities. This was in spite of the pending litigation instituted
by Malabu;
(ix)
that Shell was equally aggrieved over the unilateral
revocation of the block by the FGN
and commenced Arbitration proceedings at the International Center for Settlement
of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
claiming over $2 billion from the FGN for breach
of contract, loss of investment and special
damages;
(x)
that It was under the above circumstances that I, as
AGF encouraged a
definitive resolution between the parties
who themselves had expressed an
intention to settle but were untrusting of each other given their antecedents;
(xi)
that title on OPL 245at the date of settlement in 2006 and the Resolution
Agreement in 2011 vested exclusively in
Malabu subject only to the terms and
conditions in the allocation;
(xii)
that the interest of the FGN at the time of resolution in
2011was to ensure the payment
of the signature bonus on the block and that the block was developed
to enable the country earn revenue through royalty and
taxes;
(xiii)
that consistent with Nigerian law governing oil and gas and
the allocation of
oil blocks, the signature bonus due and payable to the FGN amounting to $210
million was duly paid and acknowledged. The taxes and royalties
associated with oil produced from the
block are also now being paid. This
is contrary to the lies and
misinformation being peddled
that Nigeria was
short changed in the transaction.
(xiv)
that at all times material to the resolution of the disputes between
Malabu/Shell/FGN one Mohammed Sani who now claims to be Mohammed
Abacha was not a party to
the transaction and did
not disclose any personal or family interest
in OPL 245 to the administration of Gen Abdulsalami
Abubakar GCFR or to the administration of President
Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR;
(xv)
that Mohammed Abacha did not participate in
the negotiations leading
to the resolution or settlement agreements;
(xvi)
that Mr. Abacha surfaced only after the tripartite resolution of the matter
between Shell/Malabo and the FGN to request
that the Office of the
Attorney General of the Federation should prevail on the main shareholder of Malabu to respect
their interests in Malabu
by paying them part of the proceeds;
(xvii) that
rather than use the courts to resolve their
internal company issues in Malabu, they have
resorted to the use of the apparatus of state to settle
scores with imaginary perceived enemies.
“Furthermore,
in the negotiations, the office of the Attorney General ensured that all
relevant MDAs including the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) were represented and participated to ensure compliance with
extant laws and processes.
“It is
therefore incorrect and contrary to as widely claimed in some quarters that the
money that was paid to Malabu, which was only warehoused in an escrow account,
was meant for the Nigerian Government and that the country was thereby
short-changed.
“Malabu as
title-holder of the oil block merely dispensed of her interest in it as allowed
by law. This indeed is the case with similar oil blocks allocated to several
notable Nigerians who also disposed of their interests to oil multinationals
and are enjoying the proceeds without any eyebrow or allegations of corruption,”
Adoke categorically stated.
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