Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke has declared that he is ready for trial following allegations of money laundering against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the $1.1bn Malabu oil deal.
The EFCC on December 20th slammed a nine-count charge against Adoke and eight others for allegedly transferring $801.540 million from the Federal Government’s escrow account.
In swift reaction, Adoke in a statement released denied any wrongdoing saying his inclusion in the 9 count charge is an orchestrated plan to bring him to public disrepute by people on a revenge mission.
According to the former minister of Justice, he represented the government in negotiating the deal between the willing parties.
He added that his office brokered the agreement between Malabu Oil and Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Limited to prevent Nigeria from paying a fine of $2 billion as damages for breach of contract.
Adoke also denied benefiting from the settlement agreement between Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited in OPL 245.
Adoke’s statement reads: “My attention has been drawn to the charges filed by the EFCC against me and other named individuals and companies in respect of OPL 245 Settlement Agreement involving Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited.”
“I wish to reiterate that I acted within the actual and ostensible authority of the Office I occupied to broker a settlement between Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited in order to ward off the over US$2 Billion Dollars liability in damages for breach of contract which the country would have been exposed to in the likely event of the success of Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited’s claim before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
“The Terms of Settlement ensured that the interests of the Federal Government of Nigeria, Malabu Oil & Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited were duly acknowledged and provided for in the Settlement Agreement. The Federal Government of Nigeria was entitled to the Signature bonus which was duly paid; Malabu Oil & Gas Limited surrendered its title to OPL 245 for a consideration and Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited was re-allocated OPL 245 which had previously substantially de-risked in consideration for withdrawing their over US$ 2 Billion Dollars claim for breach of contract against the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“Since the Parties aforementioned, faithfully discharged their respective obligations under the Settlement Agreement, one cannot comprehend how the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation which brokered the Settlement was expected to renege from the agreement by denying Malabu Oil & Gas Limited the benefits associated with the relinquishing of their title to OPL 245 already warehoused in a joint FGN/Shell Escrow account, or to prevent the subsequent re-allocation of the relinquished OPL 245 to Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited when the company had already furnished consideration for it to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
“I did not take any benefit from it, I had requisite approvals from the president and commander in chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to broker the settlement and execute the OPL 245 settlement agreement.”
“I am therefore unable to rationalise the charge of aiding the commission of money laundering offences preferred against me by the EFCC. But be that as it may, I hope to at the appropriate time make myself available to defend the charge for what whatever its worth.”
Adoke is alleged to have aided Etete and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited to transfer the sum of $801.540 from the Federal Government escrow account.
The other defendants in the suit are; Aliyu Abubakar, Malabu Oil and Gas LTD, Rocky Top Resource LTD, Imperial Union LTD, Novel Properties & Dev. Co. LTD, Group Construction LTD and Megatech Engineering LTD.
The charges come months after the House of Representatives investigated alleged shady deals in the award of oil blocs involving Malabu Oil and Gas Limited.
The anti-graft agency says the accused persons transferred $801.540 million from the Federal Government escrow account.