Halliburton scandal: The Nigerian angle
Written by Chudi Offodile Wednesday, 25 March 2009
No one would have heard of the Nigeria LNG bribery scandal if not for Georges Krammer, former Director General of the French company, Technip. Krammer was accused of paying 3 million euros in illegal commissions during investigations into Elf-Aquitane operations in Asia and Africa.
Krammer claimed the commissions were legal and in line with company's policy. Technip management disputed his claims and left him to face charges of misappropriating 3million euros. Angered by this development, Krammer who had worked for Technip for 35 years squealed. He went before Judge d’ Instruction Renaud Van Ruymbeke and told him how Technip’s commission payment system worked in Indonesia, Thailand and on the LNG Project in Nigeria.
Thus began, the French investigation of Nigeria LNG project with Renaud Van Ruymbeke in charge. The French investigation triggered off other investigations in Switzerland, the United States, and Nigeria.
The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, NLNG, was incorporated in 1989 with the Nigeria National Petroleum Company, NNPC, having majority stake.
In 1993, the Administration of Chief Ernest Shonekan agreed to a reduction of Nigeria’s equity in the company, ceding 51 per cent to the foreign shareholders in this order: Shell – 25.6 per cent, TotalFina ELF – 15 per cent, ENI 10.4- per cent. The remaining 49 per cent is held by the NNPC.
In November 1995, the engineering, procurement, and construction contract was awarded to the TSKJ consortium owned equally by Technip (French) Snamprogetti, (Italy) Kellog, Brown& Root (KBR) (Halliburton) and Japanese Gas Corp (JGC) at the cost of $3.6 billion knocking out the rival consortium BCSA, comprising Bechtel, Chiyoda, Spibat, and Ansaldo. The rivalry between the two consortia was so intense that it nearly derailed the project.
The TSKJ consortium through its subsidiary, LNG Servicos , engaged the services of Tri-Star Investments Limited to, among other services, promote and support the consortium in its commercial action and assist in maintaining ‘favourable relationship’ with the client and other government and business representatives when deemed desirable.
The clause, it turned out, represents an attempt to legitimise an elaborate bribery scheme to cover individuals within NNPC, NLNG, the Nigerian Government, consortium partners and other Western interests. The scheme probably ran from the time of the award in 1995 up till sometime in 2004 and possibly beyond. This period covered the award of the contract for trains one to six, at a cost of a little below $7 billion. The brain behind Tri-Star is a London based lawyer, Jeffrey Tesler, now about 60 years old.
Then there is Wojciech Chodan who is now about 71 years old. Chodan is central to the entire bribery saga. He was a top executive of the Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, a member of the TSKJ consortium. He attended key meetings and recorded the various schemes worked out by the consortium for bribery and for purposes of tax evasion. These voluminous records or minutes are generally referred to as the Chodan Notes.
They contain in some cases, names of those to be bribed and the amounts proposed or received, the fears expressed by some consortium members and the steps taken to allay their fears.
The Chodan Notes may not be evidence of the guilt of those mentioned in the notes but they provide the clearest evidence of the complicity of the consortium partners in establishing the slush fund. After several months of denial, the leakage of the Chodan Notes, forced Halliburton to sever all ties to Chodan and former KBR President, Albert Jack Stanley, who appeared severally in the notes as AJS. The bribery scheme itself was code-named ‘cultural arrangements’, a very sad illustration of the way business is done in Nigeria and the mindless audacity of some people in authority.
Jeffrey Tesler and Wojciech Chodan, both citizens of the United Kingdom were indicted by a federal grand jury in Houston, USA on 17 February 2009 for violating the foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FCPA, by allegedly helping KBR bribe Nigerian officials. Chodan is yet to be arrested but Tesler was arrested on 5 March 2009, following extradition request by the United States authorities. With these developments, Nigeria’s oil industry players, the business, and political elite should brace up for a bumpy ride.
The indictment seeks a forfeiture of more than $132 million paid to Tesler by TSKJ to bribe Nigerian officials. In February 2009, KBR pleaded guilty to violating the FCPA by paying Nigerian officials at least $182 million in bribes for EPC contracts awarded between 1995 and 2004 and agreed with the Department of Justice, DOJ, to pay a $402 million fine. KBR/Halliburton settled civil FCPA charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, agreeing to be jointly liable to pay $177million for disgorgement.
SEC’s complaint rests on the failure of Halliburton’s internal control mechanism to detect or prevent the bribery and that its records were falsified to cover up the illegal payments.
Nigeria’s The Guardian reported in its March 9, 2009 edition that the Attorney General and Justice Minister, Michael Aondoakaa, has threatened to sue the companies involved in the bribery scandal on their own soil or in the world financial centres where they are very active.
He puts forward the argument, that Nigeria has suffered losses on three fronts: perception/humiliation, discrimination in the world of business and colossal economic and financial losses.
Aondoakaa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, has been Nigerian Justice Minister for less than two years and cannot be held responsible for the country’s decision to bury its head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, while the rest of the world struggled to unravel the bribery scandal in the last five years.
The Minister’s decision to intervene in this matter, even if for the wrong reasons, is a good beginning although his decision to seek justice abroad, on this issue, may be an admission of the futility of obtaining justice at home. The stakes have been particularly high in Nigeria because of the caliber of people named in the bribery scandal and the fact, as we have learnt that the bribe money was still being distributed as the investigations proceeded.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of Nigeria, EFCC, commenced investigations into the scandal at about the same time (February 2004) that the Public Petitions Committee of Nigeria’s House of Representatives was mandated to investigate the same matter. I was the Chairman of the Committee from June 2003 – December 2005 and I was directly in charge of the investigation.
The Executive Branch that controlled the NNPC undermined and frustrated the efforts of the Committee to hold the companies involved in the scandal accountable.
Not much was heard of the EFCC investigation, which had Ibrahim Magu as the Investigating Officer. I got to know of it when I asked Halliburton solicitors in Nigeria (TEMPLARS) for copies of the Chodan Notes and the contract agreement between LNG Servicos (TSKJ Subsidiary) and Tri-Star (Tesler).
They provided me with the contract agreement but then informed me that ‘the only copy’ of the Chodan Notes in their possession was handed over to the EFCC. Halliburton was obviously comfortable with the EFCC investigation, but quite uncomfortable with the House of Representatives investigation, perhaps, because we appeared to know a little bit more of the complex scandal.
Information on the scandal was sketchy at the time we commenced investigation and we were not quite sure how to proceed until I met Patrick Smith, who was Editor of Africa Confidential in London.
Radical Nigerian economist, Peter Alexander Egom introduced Patrick to me. Patrick arranged meetings between me and the French judge, Renaud Ruymbeke in Paris and introduced me to other international journalists working on the scandal.
These interactions deepened my understanding of the intricate bribery scheme and I soon developed a strong desire to join the rest of the world in unraveling the scandal. Despite our best efforts, we could not achieve much. The forces of reaction in government and NNPC were bent on shielding Halliburton and by extension, themselves.
In August 2004, I submitted an interim report to the House of Representatives with the recommendation “that all companies forming part of the TSKJ consortium and all Halliburton companies in Nigeria should be excluded from new contracts and new business, pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation”.
The House of Representatives unanimously adopted this recommendation on September1, 2004.
The response of the Executive Branch through the NNPC to this resolution was to award more contracts to Halliburton/KBR .The engineering construction and services contracts to build the topsides of the FPSO for Agbami Deep offshore field, owned by NNPC, ChevronTexaco Petrobras, and Statoil was awarded to KBR. The same KBR formed a joint venture with Snamprogetti, and JGC, all three companies were members of the TSKJ consortium and still won a $1.7Billion EPC contract to build the Escravos Gas to Liquids Project, owned by NNPC and ChevronTexaco. These developments were quite frustrating. The government and the NNPC were clearly undermining our efforts and every attempt to seek collaboration with the Executive Branch failed.
On June 8, 2005 what was supposed to be an opportunity to present the facts before the President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo availed itself, or so I thought. That morning, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives (2003-2007), Austin Opara, informed me that a meeting had been scheduled later that day on the Halliburton issue with the President at the Presidential Villa, and that the Honourable Speaker (2003-2007), Aminu Bello Masari, had directed him to attend the meeting with me. At about 4:00 pm, I joined the Deputy Speaker in his official vehicle and we drove to the Presidential Villa.
We were all seated at the President’s conference room, the Halliburton team led by Andy Lane, the Chief Operating Officer, the NNPC team led by the Group Managing Director, Funsho Kupolokun, and the Deputy Speaker and myself waiting for the President to join us for the meeting. I kept busy by studying a document circulated in the room titled Presentation by Halliburton to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and jotting down my response.
A few minutes later, one of the presidency staff walked up to the Deputy Speaker and informed him that I would not be part of the meeting. He replied that I was a member of the delegation from the House of Representatives and that I was going to present the House position on the matter under consideration.
The fellow went out, consulted God knows who and returned with the same message that I would not be part of the meeting. At this point, the Deputy Speaker sprang up from his seat, beckoned on me and we walked out of the room and made our way back to the National Assembly, from whence we came.
Once again, the Halliburton enforcers had their way. On our part, we remained resolute but mindful of the limits of legislative enquiry. Meanwhile, recent events indicate that a well-coordinated global war on corruption appears to be zeroing in on Nigeria’s corruption industry, making it rather unlikely, that the enforcers will have the last laugh!

Offodile, lawyer and former member of the House of Representatives, was the Chairman of the House’s Public Petitions Committee from June 2003 – December 2005, and was directly in-charge of investigations.


The Halliburton bribe takers   
The Sun - Sunday 29/03/2009

By Dapo Olorunyomi and Mojeed Musiliku

March 29, 2009 12:40PMT

Our so-called leaders are nothing but common bribe takers, according to US investigators who have got to the bottom of the Halliburton scandal.

The fingered personalities include three former presidents; Obasanjo, Abacha, and Abubakar- as well as a who's who of Nigeria's political and business elite.

At least three of our former presidents, Sani Abacha, Abdusalami Abubakar, and Olusegun Obasanjo, received millions of dollars in bribes from American and European contractors retained to build Africa's first liquefied natural gas plant in Bonny, Rivers State, according to US law enforcement officials.

Also enmeshed in the vast and formalized bribery scheme is a long line of ministers, bureaucrats, top politicians, state and local officials and former oil minister Dan Etete, according to American investigators.

This cast of characters, charged with running the affairs of 150 million people in the heart of Africa, received stacks of US dollar bills in briefcases and sometimes in bullion vans.

In other cases they received their payoffs via electronic bank transfers involving such financial institutions as Citibank.

In all, these eminent Nigerians accepted at least N27 billion in bribes from the oil services companies in exchange for billions of dollars in contracts to build our liquefied natural gas plant, US investigators say.

American authorities are now pursuing their own citizens and corporations, notably the oil services company Halliburton, in connection with the scandal.

Halliburton has agreed to pay $579 million in fines and many of its agents face long jail terms.

Our law enforcement authorities, notably Attorney General Michael Aandoaka, have lately been making noises but have in reality done little to pursue those indicted in this scandal, which reveals us as a nation that fully justifies its reputation as one of the world's leading cesspits for corruption and unrestrained graft.

How it all started

The origin of the Nigerian Liquefied scandal can be traced back to 1994, when bids were submitted to build Africa's first liquefied natural gas plant in Bonny, Rivers State, at a cost of $6 billion.

A joint venture company, TASK, formed in equal partnership between a French engineering company, Technip; an Italian engineering company, Snamprogetti; a US engineering company, KER, of the Halliburton group; and the Japanese engineering and construction company, JIG, amplified corruption in Nigeria to unprecedented levels.

Soon after TSKJ was formed, it set up three companies registered in Madeira, Portugal to recruit two "consulting companies," Tri-Star Investment Ltd, and Marubeni Inc, with the mandate to bribe Nigerian "officials of the executive branch of government, NNPC and NLNG officials, and political party leaders," according to a sealed indictment filed at the United States District Court in Houston, Texas.

Three early decisions taken by TSKJ were: hiring a British lawyer, Jeffery Tesler, to coordinate the affairs of TriStar; signing up Wojciech Chodan, an American deal maker resident in the UK to assist him and contracting Messrs Matsuda, Endo, and Leda to run Marubeni.

According to the court deposition of Mr. Tesler, in a clinical application of the principles of division of labour, TASK mandated the Tri-Star team, which it disingenuously called "cultural advisors," to focus only on bribing the "senior level officials", while the Marubeni team was instructed to restrict itself to bribing the "lower level Nigerian officials."

Thus while Tristar was incorporated in Gibraltar and had a budget of $130 million; Marubeni, incorporated in Japan, had a budget of $50 million.

Our investigations in the United States, France, and the UK and in Nigeria spanned a three week period and were based on court indictments, depositions and interviews.

Bribery in a customary manner

Sani Abacha, Nigeria's late Head of State, was the first significant point of contact for the TSKJ team, according to lawyers of the United States department of justice, who claimed in court depositions that, in August 1994, the CEO of KBR, Albert Jackson Stanley, and top executives of TSKJ struck an agreement with Abacha "to do business in a customary manner."

Towards this end, a "cultural committee" of the sales and senior personnel officers of the four joint venture companies, as well as agents of Marubeni was put together to "consider how to implement, but hide, the scheme to pay bribes" to Nigerian officials.

The "cultural committee" in October 1994 worked out a programme of what it called "the downloading and offloading of payments through subcontractors and vendors."

According to the U. S. Department of Justice, once a plan of how to distribute the bribes and a scheme to evade US bank monitors were resolved, the "cultural committee" gave Mr. Tesler the green light to meet the then petroleum minister, Dan Etete, to discuss and agree on the modalities.

This meeting held on November 02 1994, when Mr. Tesler handed Mr. Etete the bribe schema to secure Train 1 and Train 2 of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) contract.

It was made clear that $60 million was available to be shared. Out of this, $40 million would go to Mr. Abacha, while others would have to scramble for the remaining $20million.

A cultural committee to manage the graft

Keeping faith with the grand plan of the cultural committee, Mr. Stanley, the CEO of KER, who was handpicked for this job by former U. S. Vice President Dick Cheney, rushed to Abuja three weeks after the November 2 meeting, to confirm if Mr. Abacha was comfortable with Tesler as a go-between.

Once this was understood on both sides, a series of decisions was made ahead of the signing of the Train 1 and Train 2 contracts.

In January 1995, Chodan and Stanley agreed to exclude any US citizens from participating in the bribe scheme. In March of the same year, TSKJ formally signed the $60 million contract with TriStar.

Furthermore, in December, TSKJ paid TriStar $1.5 million as commission for its "services," and in April 1996, TSKJ formally signed a $29 million contract with Marubeni to settle the "lower level Nigerian officials."

According to filings in the Houston District court, by the time the Train 1 and Train 2 contracts had been signed, Mr. Tesler himself wired $63,000 into a Swiss account of Mr. Etete.

French police prosecutors have determined that around the same time, in order to cover up his tracks, he also opened negotiations with Etete to purchase five per cent of the then minister's holding in the OPL 245 Malibu oil block.

For this deal, Mr. Tesler wired a total of $2.5 million into the accounts of the former minister through the TriStar accounts.

Mr. Etete used three different names, according to the deposition, his personal name or Buzaki Etete, or one Omoni Amafegha, who Mr. Tesler told the French Court was a listed name on the board of Malibu.

Dele Adesina, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Mr. Etete's lawyer in respect of the Malabu oil block license which the Obasanjo administration revoked in 1999, would not comment on this matter when asked.

He said: "I was only retained with respect of the revocation of the Malabu block; I have absolutely no knowledge of Mr. Tesler."

Mr.Tesler's brief was to make sure things moved smoothly. A key challenge at this point was unfettered access to Mr. Abacha at that time, and as he told French investigators, the man who made this possible was the former Inspector General of Police, M. D. Yusuf, who later became Chairman of the NLNG.

Mr. Tesler claimed he "downloaded $75,000 in two installments" into Mr. Yusuf’s pocket for this purpose. Information on the former policeman's involvement in the TSKJ scandal is not new.

In 2004, when a House of Representatives Committee headed by Chudi Offodile investigated the NLNG contract, it found out that Mr. Yusuf as NLNG chairman acted improperly in favour of TSKJ.

Petroleum minister at the time, Don Etiebet, had sought to ensure fair play in the contract bid between TSKJ, and the only other competitor, BCSA.

It "appeared that a decision had been taken even before the Board meeting of 24th Sept. 1994" that determined the contract, the Offodile report stated.

What happened after Trains 1 and 2

Having put the Train 1 and 2 contracts in the can, TSKJ turned its gaze on the Train 3 contract. For this, Stanley flew to Abuja again in the second quarter of 1997, with the sole mission of asking Mr. Abacha to recommend a trusted front man to collect his bribe.

Shortly after he died on June 8, 1998, Mr. Tesler promptly erased him from the list of bribe beneficiaries, substituting him with the new helmsman, Abdulsalami Abubakar.

To keep the entire scheme on the rails, Stanley flew back to Abuja on February 28 1999, asking Mr. Abubakar, to recommend a trusted front man to collect his bribe.

Anxiety about the election

With an election already fixed for May 1999, TSKJ was anxious to wrap up the Train 3 contract before a change of power in Abuja.

Another meeting was held in London on March 05 1999, to come up with a strategy to achieve this objective.

One week after, TSKJ won the Train 3 contract for $1.2 billion. On March 18, 1999, TSKJ paid a kickback of $32.5 million into TriStar's account, to bribe the Nigerian officials who facilitated the award of the contract.

Even though the lower class officials were eventually catered for in the bribe scheme, they always got the short end of the stick.

Thus, while the senior Nigerian officials had their bribes promptly paid, it took one year after TSKJ had signed the Train 3 contract before Marubeni lined the pockets of the lower class officials.

Computing the pay-offs up to January 2001, American prosecutors believe that a $2.5 million bribe was "off loaded" directly to the Swiss account of Mr. Abubakar's frontman.

For four days last week, NEXT sought unsuccessfully, through his media consultant, to reach the former Head of State, sending him details of the court indictments but he declined to comment.

After the transition to civil rule in 1999, the United States Department of Justice attorneys stated that Mr. Stanley met with the new President, Olusegun Obasanjo and the then Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Gauis Obaseki, in Abuja on November 11, 2001, to designate "a representative with whom the joint venture [TSKJ] should negotiate the [obligatory] bribes in support of the award of the [forthcoming] Trains 4 and 5 contracts."

One month later, on December 20 in London, Mr. Obaseki met Mr. Chodan and Mr. Stanley over lunch, to discuss the details of the Trains 4 and 5 contracts.

On Christmas Eve, TSKJ signed a $51 million deal with TriStar, to bribe Nigerian officials for the Trains 4 and 5 contracts.

Three months later, in March 2002, TSKJ won the Train 4 and 5 contract for $3.6 billion. Mr. Obaseki declined to respond to these charges when NEXT spoke to him on the phone.

He appeared to be more disturbed about how we got his phone numbers. "I am sorry I have no response to give" he said.

Mr. Obaseki's email address and phone numbers are all listed on his own personal website. We also could not reach former president Obasanjo, for his comment on the bribe claims by Mr. Tesler.

Taking care of the political big boys Following the signing of contracts for Trains 4 and 5, all seemed to be going well between the new administration and TSKJ.

June 2002 would turn out to be a significant month in this narrative of sleaze between TSKJ and Nigerian government officials.

That month, TSKJ signed another $25 million contract with Marubeni to settle the bribes of the low cadre officials for the Trains 4 and 5 of the NLNG project.

It also signed a $23 million contract with TriStar to bribe the top officials for the Train 6 project.

However, Mr. Obaseki's meeting with Mr. Tesler in London represented an important turning point in the scandal.

The former NNPC's GMD's message to the meeting, according to Mr. Tesler's indictment papers, was that the time had come to bring in the political boys.

Apparently the Peoples Democratic Party gods needed to be appeased.

Indictment records from both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States attorneys showed that in August 2002, Mr. Tesler wired $5 million to the account of a Port Harcourt based sub-contractor named Intels Energy Limited.

The money was received in the company's account with Citibank Nigeria.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and the late Shehu Musa Yar Adua are alleged to have substantial interests in Intels Energy Limited.

NEXT made repeated but unsuccessful attempts to speak to Intels officials on the phone.

A letter delivered to their Ikoyi, Lagos office asking for their response to this allegation is still unanswered.

A Mr. Joseph who was in the office said, "How did you people even get this information,” adding that the letter must be forwarded to Intels Port Harcourt office.

Intels, according to our investigations, was the key sub contractor for Marubeni in bribing the lower level officials of the NNPC and NLNG.

Bullion van bribery

Both the Department of Justice and the Security and Exchange Commission's attorneys, corroborated each other's claim that $1million in $100 bills was deposited "to the NNPC official" at the NICON Hilton Hotel in a "pilot's briefcase" for onward delivery to the PDP before the 2003 general elections.

The remaining $4 million was, according to the court filings, delivered in naira in a bul-lion van.

Audu Ogbe who was the PDP chairman at the time denied any knowledge of this and loudly called for an investigation.

A spokesman for Vincent Ogbulafor, the current chairman, said in Abuja last week that Ogbulafor also discounted this claim.

Phenomenal greed and sleaze

The planning, the scale and the sophistication of TSKJ's web of corruption and its capacity to ensnare three successive heads of state, coupled with the elaborate scheme to set up corrupting agencies for lower and senior officials, stands out in the annals of official corruption in Nigeria.

The ruling class was identified and broken down into its constituent parts: political, bureaucratic, and technocratic so as to isolate the beneficiaries of the graft.

TSKJ came fully prepared and well primed to sustaining this code named scheme over the decade it would take to come to fruition.

The multijurisdictional impact of the corruption is still unprecedented in Nigeria.

Keeping mute

Attorneys for TSKJ, KBR, and Halliburton in Nigeria, Templars Law Offices on Victoria Island, Lagos declined to answer questions about the conduct of their clients, saying "we cannot make any comment on TSKJ because they are no longer our clients."

Yet, Templars maintains a relationship with both TSKJ and Halliburton on its website.

It indeed claims to maintain a "recent relationship,” regarding multi-jurisdictional l investigations in Nigeria, Switzerland, France, and the UK.

An office spokesperson declined to comment on when Templars severed its relationships with TSKJ and Halliburton.

But he was emphatic that the principal partner, Oghogho Akpata, who is the office lead on the TSKJ/KBR/Halliburto n brief, would not be available for comments.

Investigating KBR

KBR or its principal officers are facing investigation and prosecution in at least five countries today.

Officers from Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) arrested Mr. Tesler, now 60, at his offices in Tottenham, London, on March 05.

He is to be extradited to the USA to face further questioning by the Department of Justice.

Also arrested with Mr. Tesler was Mr. Chodan, 71, who as an agent for Halliburton wrote detailed diaries, describing meetings with the bribe consortium and representatives of the international oil companies.

From the United Kingdom, Britain's Serious Fraud Office confirmed that there is an on-going investigation into the allegations of bribery and corruption against British businesses in Nigeria.

Since 2004, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been investigating the conduct of Halliburton/ KBR.

The investigation is ongoing, according to sources in Abuja.

Recently, the Swiss Justice department followed the steps of the Police Judiciary of France, which in 2003, started an investigation which revealed fraudulent Halliburton payments to Jeffery Tesler.

In their home country, the United States, KBR and Halliburton admitted last month to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, by engaging in a decade-long bribing scheme to secure contracts in Nigeria.

The companies also agreed to pay a combined fine of $579 million to settle criminal and civil charges brought by both the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) for violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

The indictment of Mr. Tesler and Mr. Chodan, in all likelihood, will also open a floodgate of other suits.

This month the president gave full backing to the Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa, to again investigate Halliburton for tarnishing the image of the country by bribing its officials.

Mr. Aaondoaka has assembled a team of local lawyers and briefed American-based financial crimes experts, to institute a suit against KBR and Halliburton for soiling the name of the country through the bribery schemes.

Also last Tuesday, the Nigerian Senate called on the Federal Government to identify the Nigerians involved and proceed to prosecute them.

Smart Adeyemi, one of the eight senators who sponsored the Bill said "the matter is so huge it can erase the prestige of the Senate and indeed of the Nigerian government to be legitimate, if this is swept under the carpet."

The chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-corruption, Sabo Nakudu, also takes the position that the allegations deserve "serious investigation”, although he was worried that "we haven't got any petition in that regard and no report has been sent to us.

We just read about the thing in the newspapers. Unless we are able to come across some documentation to look at that kind of issue, there is nothing we can do.

We are just reading all these information in the newspapers like anybody else."

In the 2003-2007 House of Representatives, when Chudi Offodile, as chairman of the House committee on pubic petitions, investigated the Halliburton scandal, he said he repeatedly ran into a brick wall.

The Offodile committee, however, recommended that all companies in the TSKJ consortium, as well as Halliburton be excluded from future contracts in the country.

The House sitting of September 2004 approved the committee's recommendations.

In his response to the current phase of the scandal, Mr. Offodile, in a pained response, lamented how the NNPC and the Federal Government subverted all the best intensions of the legislature.

In spite of the legislators’ recommendations, NNPC went ahead to give KBR the contract to build the "topsides of the FPSO for Agbami Deep offshore field, owned by NNPC, ChevronTexaco Petrobras and Statoil,  [and that the] same KBR formed a Joint Venture with Snamprogetti, and JGC, all three Companies were members of the notorious TSKJ consortium and still won a $1.7Billion EPC contract to build the Escravos Gas to Liquids Project, owned by the NNPC and Chevron-Texaco, '' said Mr. Offodile.

He recounted a meeting in June 2005 when he accompanied then House Speaker Aminu Bello and Deputy Speaker Austin Opara, to brief President Obasanjo on the true situation of the Halliburton/ KBR.

"We were all seated at the President's conference room, the Halliburton team led by Mr. Andy Lane, the Chief Operating Officer, the NNPC team, led by the Group managing Director, Funsho Kupolokun , " a few minutes later, one of the presidency staff walked up to the Deputy Speaker and informed him that I would not be part of the meeting."

Offodile said adding that he was thrown out of the meeting. He described the situation as frustrating and painful because "once again, the Halliburton enforcers had their way."

It appears that Mr. Aoandoaka, who reportedly travelled to London and Washington last week also has an eye on the civil forfeiture processes for some of the monies and investments derived from the bribes.

Officials at the Serious Fraud Office in London declined comments on Mr. Aoandoaka's statement, saying investigations are still going on.

NEXT can however authoritatively confirm, that no mutual legal assistant requests have yet been filed from the Attorney General's office to give substance to his stated desire.

Sources working in UK and US law enforcement agencies told NEXT the attorney general's request for support on the Wilbros case has not been honoured due to a perception of official stalling and stonewalling on the part of Nigerian anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies.

Local attorney's reviewing Aoandoaka's strategy says it is self serving and funny.

"It is empty braggadocio couched in legal phraseology,” says Jiti Ogunye, a lawyer on Aoandoaka's strategy.

"When you say you are going to sue a company for damaging the image of a country, you are speaking in the realm of libel. A country is a subject in international law, I'm not aware of a situation in which a country as an entity sues an individual or another country for libel. I think his statement should just be dismissed."

But Carol Ajie, another lawyer thinks that Aondoaka's pursuit of Haliburton might be "in order to compel Haliburton to disclose the names of bribe takers since the giver and taker of bribes are both guilty."



EFCC to probe Halliburton bribery scandal

Written by Ise-Oluwa Ige & Bukola Ojeme   
Thursday, 02 April 2009

ABUJA — THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) yesterday said it is set to launch investigations into the alleged involvement of some Nigerian officials over the Halliburton bribe scandal.
About $180 million was paid out as bribe through a subsidiary of Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KER), to facilitate the award of $6 billion LNG contracts.
Meanwhile, April 14 has been set for hearing after a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja gave the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) the green light to prosecute a lawsuit seeking an order compelling the EFCC to probe and prosecute former President Olusegun Obasanjo over alleged corruption.
EFCC chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, said the Commission has requested the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to furnish it with details of Nigerian officials indicted in the Halliburton bribe scam as well as the actual judgment against them.
She made this known in Abuja during the opening of the 3rd Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Compliance Stakeholders summit expected to end today in Abuja.
The EFCC boss also affirmed that investigations into the matter would be professionally executed, without prejudice to the caliber of those involved.
Her words: “Yes, we are working on that case. We have written to the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) on the need to have the actual court judgment so that we can see the actual names; what each person did. We even invited some people that were mentioned specifically, we recorded their statements and we are working on it.
“You know, nobody is above the laws of the land, the law is no respecter of persons, and everybody is equal before the law. So, I don’t know whether prominent or whatever; if you are indicted, if our investigations prove that you have breached the law, of course you are liable,” Waziri added.
The EFCC boss further reiterated the need for AML/CFT compliance to economic growth, insisting that “the current economic crisis calls for concerted effort on the part of every country to comply with and ensure effective implementation of anti-money laundering programmes.”
“Nigeria must stand tall in this endeavour among the comity of nations. We must stand to be counted as a nation. It is important to mention that there is a nexus between AML/CFT and the achievement of the Federal Government’s 7-Point Agenda; attainment of Vision 2020 and ultimately, a sustainable economic growth”, she said.
Waziri warned that, the EFCC will not stay on the sidelines”while the economic stability of the country is sacrificed on the altar of unethical business practices. We will strictly enforce the Money Laundering compliance requirements of the law.
“Where market operators and reporting entities are found wanting, the commission will firmly and decisively deal with defaulters. In this context, it may interest the audience and market operators to know that the Commission intends to develop and apply administrative sanctions against entities that fail to adhere with the money laundering compliance requirements of the law” she added.
Also speaking at the event, the House Committee Chairman on Narcotics and Financial Crimes, Nasir Rabe said that the EFCC has all the tools and enabling laws to fight corruption to a standstill as well as curb it.

CNPP’s move to compel Obasanjo's probe get green light

Meanwhile, a Federal high court sitting in Abuja has given the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) the green light to prosecute a lawsuit seeking an order compelling the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe and prosecute former President Olusegun Obasanjo over alleged corruption.
Obasanjo was accused by CNPP of diversion of public funds and illegal enrichment.
Similarly, the trial high court judge, Justice Adamu Bello who granted the association permission to sue EFCC has also granted leave to the umbrella organisation of the political parties in the country to pursue an order of mandamus compelling EFCC to probe and prosecute former Executive Secretary of PTDF, Alhaji Adamu Waziri over corruption and diversion of public funds.
The judge had directed the CNPP to serve the court order on the anti-graft agency to enable it defend the suit. The CNPP had written two separate petitions to EFCC under the leadership of Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu alleging corruption against the two top public officials. But the petition did not give specific details of how the corruption was perpetrated.
The EFCC had consequently written back to the CNPP to assist it in beefing up the petition by giving specific details. Ever since, nothing was done on the petitions.
Aggrieved by the position of EFCC, CNPP filed a suit before the Federal high court seeking an order of mandamus compelling EFCC to perform its statutory function of probing the allegations made against the two top public officials.
It was the contention of the CNPP that its own was to alert while EFCC’s responsibility was to follow up, probe and prosecute where there is prima facie evidence against them.
By procedure, the CNPP first sought for the leave of the court to commence the legal action against the anti-graft agency
The court has not only granted it but also fixed April 14 for commencement of hearing in the case. The EFCC is expected to come up with its defense or and preliminary objection on the adjourned date.
It is likely too that both ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and Adamu Waziri may file an application for joinder as necessary parties in the case.

Didn't read the whole thing. Too damn long. Skimmed through it. Got the jist.


Our leaders are corrupt, take bribes, and built a system where they can safely do that. That system is called the Nigerian constitution.

Welcome to Africa and enjoy your stay.