Following the news publications on 6-Oct-14 on several National dailies on this subject matter, the EFCC has issued a futile denial in which they struggle to extricate themselves by ascribing facts now in a public hearing at the National Assembly as sponsored and stated that I attempt to deceive the public. For avoidance of doubt, I saw the news like everyone else and it did not even contain the details of EFCC vigorous cover-up of a serious financial crime of Tax evasion by Shell, the orchestrated corruption and serial persecution for extortion of bribes from me which is the real crux of the matter. I shall however provide step by step response to their futile denial.

I did not wait for four years to complain.

I have stamped acknowledgement copies of my Petitions to the AGF on 11-Nov-2011 (dated 9-11-2011, shortly after the bribe demand in Oct 2011) which I copied to EFCC. Lamorde (then Operations Director, invited me and several others for meetings which lasted 3 days: 15 to 17-Nov-2011 in his Abuja office during which he showed me the original copy of my Petition to the AGF. Olaolu Adegbite now Operations director was going for an award on that 15 Nov and told me in that meeting that I was just wasting my time writing petitions. Unfortunately, it turned out to be true. I wrote Lamorde (who had then become EFCC Chairman) again on 18-Jan-2012 (stamped 20-01-2012), No response. I then wrote to the AGF 2-May-2012 upon which EFCC sent over 25 mobile policemen to vandalise my residence and kidnap me in Port Harcourt. I was lucky. I have so many neigbours and witnesses who saw them beat a worker in my house to coma and left him for dead.

By claiming that Shell was defrauded by Bayelsa State Government and myself, EFCC has ascribed itself superiority over the Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Government of Bayelsa State (BYSG) and written testimonies by Shell Finance Director and Managers. I shall provide full details.

I managed the Technical Interfaces of the Gbaran Ubie Integrated Oil and Gas Project in Gbarantoro LGA of Bayelsa State for the NNPC, SPDC, Total, AGIP Joint Venture operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria.

When the AGF failed to act, I blew the whistle to the National Assembly on the N7b tax evasion perpetrated by SPDC and the irresponsible and corrupt actions of persons in EFCC leadership which aided, abetted and perpetuated the Tax evasion while in pursuit of their selfish pecuniary interests. These interests were pursued in serial acts of persecution to extort N120m bribes demanded from me, breaches in Procurement of 3rd party Legal Services as well as outrageous legal fees to prosecute a charade that is still-born. The 280 paged petition to National Assembly was dated 21 May 2014.

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Petition invited Chile Okoroma and Olaolu Adegbite (EFCC directors) and Shell to appear before it for a Public Investigative Hearing in July. Suddenly, one Ibrahim Lamorde, a Public Office holder, whose position falls well within the definitions of Section 88 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, signed a letter to the Honourable Speaker declining to release other public officers to honour the invitation of the National Assembly sent in exercise of Constitutional powers duly conferred under Section 88 and 89 (1)(c) and on a matter of public purport covered under Section 88 (2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution. This deliberate ignorance is driven by the same executive lawlessness I reported in my petition. As Directors in EFCC, they are public servants subject to accountability as constitutionally prescribed. EFCC is not above the Law.

I reported in details, the vigorous steps taken by EFCC to cover up SPDC tax evasions of over N7b in building permit fees for the Gbaran Ubie Integrated Oil and Gas Project in Gbarantoro LGA of Bayelsa State. Despite noting the absence of Development permit in its statutory Technical Pre Start-up Audit (TPSUA) carried out prior to commissioning of the plant, the Department of Petroleum Resources DPR still approved it for commissioning in June 2010 in violation of the Petroleum Act and the Urban and Regional Planning Act.

The problems started when Forstech Technical being the BYSG Consultants who processed the SPDC permit reported the SPDC tax evasion in June 2010 to the then Government of Timipre Sylva. To avert international reputational damage that the Forstech allegation of fraud and tax evasion will cause, SPDC quickly made up a petition to EFCC counter-alleging that Bayelsa State Government had defrauded it to the tune of N4b by collaborating with me. Before handing me over to EFCC, SPDC gave me a Promotion letter with instructions to preserve Shell. Despite showing the letter to EFCC, they tortured me leading me to have a heart attack and subsequent stroke in March 2011. SPDC who claimed that I have been sacked treated me in their clinic. I still did not relent or buckle. EFCC then demanded for the sum of N120m bribe for them to close the case after they found out that there was nothing to hang on me.

I had reported to the AGF and latter to the National assembly that when I failed to pay up the bribes, EFCC trumped up criminal charges of Money laundering against me, BYSG officials and Forstech Technical (in suit FHC/ABJ/CR/54/2012) in June 2012 accusing me and others of laundering the legitimate fees paid to the Forstech.

This was done even after I had issued the AGF and EFCC documents making them aware that the transactions were legitimate actions of Bayelsa State Government. The documents included the signed Resolution of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly dated 7 Feb 2012 which indicted SPDC of Fraud and Tax evasion and instructed the Executive to recover the monies. Also included was a Certified True Copy of a Demand Notice dated 21 Feb 2012, from the BYSG of Hon Seriaka Dickson to SPDC in which the BYSG acknowledged the payments made to the Consultants as a bonafide action of government while demanding payment of the balances from SPDC. Who made the EFCC a superior supervising authority over the BYSG to determine what is legitimate or not for the Governor, Government and People of Bayelsa State?

Further, SPDC Directors and Managers had also made written statements to EFCC in May 2011 (which I obtained and tendered to the AGF), wherein they took responsibility for all the transactions and cleared me and BYSG of any Fraud. Specifically, the SPDC Finance Director, Rob Van Velden, a citizen of Netherland, when initially questioned in May 2011 had stated in written statements made to EFCC that
“In short, I believe due process was followed since (1) documents were properly signed by the project, legal, technical director, (2) the company-estimate was in line with the total payment, (3) the issue of using a 3rd party Forstech was well debated by our staff with our lawyer present, and with the Director of BYSG, and satisfactorily closed with minutes of meeting as evidence attached to the payment proposal and (4) head of Legal and controller confirmed ok for payment. The line approval submission dated 29-Jan-2010 was initiated by Okee Elechi, deputy project manager.”

EFCC knew all these and still went to court to file frivolous charges as a conduit to loot the national treasury. It is noteworthy that EFCC obtained these statements and had it for over one year before proceeding with the so called criminal charges. There was no mention of Fraud or obtaining under false pretence from anyone, in any of the trumped up 22 counts of Money Laundering charges.
Moreover, under Nigerian laws (Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2004, EFCC Act, Criminal Code Act 2004 and all subsequent amendments), for any money to be laundered, it must be illicitly or fraudulently obtained. This is why all the charges are just a charade because there is no law to support them.

How then can legitimate incomes be laundered? EFCC procured and engaged the services of Rotimi Jacobs SAN (without following due process of the Public Procurement Act) to sustain the “charges” of laundering legitimate income while using the case and Counsel, Rotimi Jacobs SAN as a conduit for illicit money through payment of outrageous legal fees running into Millions of Naira (in an endless trial).

SPDC on its part maintains that the petition is still subjudiced by the EFCC’s money laundering charges. But that amounts to playing ostrich as no substance of my petition is subjudiced. The sole issue before the trial court in the 22 count charge is only money laundering which is not in my petition and no relief is sought in that regard:

i. That Chile Okoroma demanded N120m from me to close the SPDC charade petition is not before any court of law and therefore not subjudice. (Petition items 1. CORRUPTION and 2. PERSECUTION FOR EXTORTION)
ii. That SPDC promoted me as an inducement to safeguard their reputation is not subjudice. (Petition subject BACKGROUND – YEAR 2010 TO 2011 and item 1 of CHRONOLOGICAL DRIVERS).
iii. That SPDC committed fraud and tax evasion in Bayelsa State is not subjudiced. It is the official and subsisting position of the BYSG. (Petition item 4. EXECUTIVE IMPUNITY, SUBVERSION AND CORRUPTION). The Bayelsa State House of Assembly investigated and passed a Resolution (Petition Attachment 9) indicting SPDC of tax evasion and Fraudulent acts, building the Gbaran-Ubie Integrated Oil and Gas Project facilities without obtaining mandatory and statutory Development Permit. The Executive served an Enforcement notice on SPDC giving effect to the Resolutions (Petition Attachment 10). Shell refused to comply and till date, remained in violation and operating without the Development Permit.
iv. That EFCC abdicated its responsibility to investigate the crime of Fraud and Tax evasion is not subjudiced. (Petition items 3. ECONOMIC SABOTAGE & SUBVERSION and 6 IMPUNITY & EXECUTIVE LAWLESSNESS)
v. That Adegbite and Chile Okoroma subverted the Government of Bayelsa State by criminalising their official acts is not a subject matter before any court. (Petition item 3)
vi. That EFCC broke the law by procuring 3rd Party Counsel services without compliance to the Procurement Act and for corrupt pecuniary objectives is not a matter before any court. (Petition item 5. CORRUPTION)
vii. That Rotimi Jacobs SAN and EFCC abused court processes for corrupt pecuniary gains is not a matter before any Court (Petition item 2)
viii. That EFCC engaged in acts of terror and intimidation in abuse of power vandalising my Port Harcourt residence in May 2012 is not a matter before any court.

Conversely, the purported retirement of the trial Judge does not bring in an issue that is not before the court. EFCC should stop looking for escape route and face the issues.

PERSECUTIONS:
I submitted documentary evidence to the House Committee showing that the EFCC had obtained an exparte order of the Federal High Court Lagos on 6th June 2011, and freezed my accounts and those of companies belonging to BYSG consultant. The same Court had on 30th May 2012, under the same hand of Hon. Justice J. Adah (now a Justice of the Court of Appeal) ordered Stanbic IBTC and CSCS to defreeze all of the Consultants accounts. EFCC ordered the bank not to obey the Order
in order to keep the source of the bribes warehoused until they able to extort their demands from the Consultants monies. The subsequent actions of EFCC support this fact:

The Companies instituted Contempt proceeding against Stanbic IBTC Bank and its Directors, a matter currently pending determination in Federal High Court Abuja. While this Contempt matter (in which Rotimi Jacobs SAN is a Defendant’s counsel) was still pending, the same Rotimi Jacobs SAN, along with EFCC’s Chile Okoroma, filed another Exparte Originating Summons (Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/236/2014) to obtain through the backdoor, the same order which has not been obeyed and for which contempt proceeding was ongoing since 2012, in order to make sure that the monies remain warehoused for them. This abuse was reported to the FHC Chief Judge, who immediately permitted the Consultant to present their objections before the trial Judge. EFCC was served notice of this permission upon which EFCC then filed Motion for Discontinuance of the Exparte.

I also reported that in another of their persecution antics, 14 months after my business accounts in First Bank and Fidelity had been defreezed by those banks in obedience to the 30 May 2012 Court Ruling, EFCC instructed First Bank to again freeze my accounts by sending them fresh instructions on 22 July 2013, to freeze back my accounts based on the FREEZE order of 6 June 2011 and feigning ignorance of the 30 May 2012 DEFREEZE Ruling. The EFCC culprit letter to First Bank was attached in my Petition.

 Why would EFCC be working vigorously to protect and preserve Shell in Financial crime of Tax Evasion?
 Why would EFCC criminalise the official and statutory actions of BYSG?
 Why would EFCC exert itself so much to hold on to someone legitimate money?
 Why would EFCC illegally procure and use a 3rd party agent to prosecute a bonafide 3rd Party agent of BYSG
 Why would EFCC arbitrarily pay millions of Naira as legal fees to this 3rd party agent for a charade while their lawyers lose opportunity for acquisition of practice experience, idling away?

In the EFCC story as well as their letter in response to an invitation of the House Committee on Public Petitions, CP Ibrahim Lamorde, dismissed my Petition as “blatant lies and afterthoughts of a brazen criminal facing prosecution”. He asked the Honourable Speaker to protect EFCC from what he termed “anarchy” that will result from their appearing before the Committee. In the letter, the EFCC Chairman also informed the Speaker of the US Government interest in the matter which the US Security and Exchange Commission already had a “cold file” since 2012. In what appears to be desperate last ditch effort to botch the Public hearing, Lamorde appealed for the direct intervention of the Honourable Speaker to stop a Public hearing that had been laid on Plenary and assigned to Committee during the House session of 4th June 2014.

In my letter of 11 August 2014 to the Honourable Speaker reacting to the EFCC letter, I pleaded that the hearing should go on stating that “This (EFCC’s) letter was addressed to the Honourable Speaker in a deliberate attempt to elicit the sympathy and intervention of the Speaker for the purpose of persuading or intimidating the Committee to refrain them from exercising their lawful and Constitutional mandate which if it succeeds, is tantamount to perversion of the cause of justice”.

On the issue of lies, I have never been convicted by any court for even misdemeanour, talk more of “Brazen Criminal”. I have submitted documents as evidence of facts. Is it False that:
i. EFCC went to file another Exparte originating summons while a ruling on the previous order is a subject of Contempt before a court and as suit no Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/236/2014?
ii. Bayelsa State House of Assembly found SPDC guilty of fraud and tax evasion, or that a Resolution to the effect was passed?
iii. the BYSG served SPDC a demand notice in which payments to the Consultant was acknowledged as an official legal act of BYSG?
iv. that SPDC committed fraud by negotiating taxes?
v. that Chile Okoroma demanded bribes to close a matter he knows does not exist?
vi. that EFCC hired Rotimi Jacobs SAN to prosecute this case without due process and in contravention of the Public Procurement Act? and that no such procurement of 3rd Party Service including Rotimi Jacobs SAN was verified or cleared by the due process team?
vii. that Rotimi Jacobs SAN was paid millions of Naira on this money laundering matter?
viii. that EFCC refused to investigate financial crimes duly brought to their notice?
ix. that SPDC Director and Staff made useful statements to EFCC which were
hidden away?
x. that Olaolu Adegbite went to US-SEC while he was already seized with the fact that SPDC evaded taxes and committed fraud? Did he tell them?”

Using abusive language such as blatant lies, brazen criminal etc does not change the facts. There is overwhelming evidence which EFCC cannot wish away by abusing me. They should controvert them.

Ibrahim Lamorde, the Executive Chairman of the EFCC has no tenable response to the specific issues of illegal acts of the Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC), EFCC corruption, abuse of office, official misconduct, lack of due process, executive lawlessness, subversion and cover-ups under his watch, which are facts I have raised and supported with verifiable evidence. He seeks comfort in rationalisations, name calling, abusiveness and subjudice with the desperate hope to divert attention from the subject matter.

Lamorde’s assertion that “The Original case itself was engendered by a complaint received from SPDC in September 2010 that it was tricked to pay the sum of over N4billion in early 2010 over the Gbaran-Ubie Integrated oil and gas project for a ‘bogus development permit’, when the project was already almost completed ....” is in itself pitiable. The Executive Chairman of EFCC should know that every citizen and even government are mandatorily required by law to obtain “Development Permit” BEFORE developing any property or erecting any building; even the EFCC Headquarters should have the permit. Development permit cannot be ‘Bogus’. More specifically, Section 30 (2) of the Nigerian Urban and Regional Planning Act (CAP 138), L.F.N. 2004 states that “No development shall be COMMENCED by any Government or its agencies without obtaining an approval from the Development Control Department”
My questions for Ibrahim Lamorde are:
i. Under what section of the EFCC Act was Ibrahim Lamorde restrained from arresting SPDC (as an operator of a government joint venture) for “almost completing” a development without development permit?
ii. Under what section of the EFCC Act did Development Permit become ‘Bogus’?
iii. Is there any other law that upturned the fact that Development Permit is a mandatory condition-precedent to any development or even for alterations to a development?

Blatantly admitting that all these crimes have been brought to his notice and not made any attempt to verify or investigate any of them amounts to complacency, presumptuousness, complicity, negligence and/or incompetence, for any of which he should have the dignity to resign.

Hearing continues on 15th October 2014.