The Federal Government, on Tuesday, said it had intensified effort to arrest and
extradite the immediate past Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr.
Mohammed Adoke, SAN, back to Nigeria to face two sets of criminal charges over his alleged
involvement in $1.3billion oil bloc fraud.
Former attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke
FG said its decision to liaise with international security agencies to arrest the former Justice
Minister who has remained outside the country since he vacated office, followed his repeated
refusal to surrender himself to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Consequently, government lawyer, Mr. Johnson Ojugbane, persuaded the Abuja Division of the
Federal High Court to adjourn trial of Adoke and others fingered in the Malabu Oil bloc scandal, till
October 26.
Trial Justice John Tsoho okayed the adjournment to enable the prosecution to produce the
defendants to enter their plea to criminal charges pending against them before the court.
According to FG, Adoke, who served under former President Goodluck Jonathan, played key role in
“a fraudulent deal” that saw the transfer of ownership of a disputed Oil Prospecting License, OPL,
245, to two multinational oil companies, Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company, Nigeria Agip
Exploration Ltd.
OPL 245 is regarded as one of the richest oil blocs in Africa. It was initially awarded to Malabu Oil
& Gas Ltd in 1998 by late military head of state, General Sani Abacha, in a process the EFCC
insisted was against all known government regulations.
EFCC told the court that investigations revealed that Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd secured OPL 245
through fraudulent scheme involving high scale bribery and corruption by top management of the
company and some government officials.
Processes the anti-graft agency filed before the high court further revealed that the oil bloc was
later withdrawn from Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd on July 2, 2001, based on the directive of then
Presidential Adviser on Petroleum to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, after which it was re-
allocated to Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Ltd.
However, following series of litigations, OPL 245 was returned back to Malabu, which EFCC said
subsequently went into a fraudulent agreement with Shell and Agip, in which the companies paid
signature bonus of $210million to FG, while additional $1.1billion bribe was given to some owners of
Malabu Oil $ Gas Ltd led by a former Minister of Petroleum under Abacha, Chief Dan Etete, who
as at then was already a convict.
EFCC alleged that it was the former AGF, Adoke, SAN, that helped Shell and Agip to route the
bribe money through FG’s Escrow Account with JP Morgan Chase Bank in London.
“That sometime in May 2011, Nigeria Agip Exploration and SNEPCO instructed Chase Bank to
release the said $1, 092, 040, 000 USD into Escrow Account of the Federal Government.
“That the said money on the instruction of the then AGF, Mohammed Adoke, was transferred from
the Escrow Account to two banks namely First Bank and Keystone Bank operated by Dan Etete
and Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd.
“The said amount was later laundered with several accounts of individuals and different companies”.
Specifically, the agency alleged that Adoke, Etete, an oil mogul, Aliyu Abubakar and Malabu Oil &
Gas Ltd, had sometime in 2000, corruptly received the aggregate sum of $801,000,000.00 (Eight
hundred and one million Dollars) in relation to the grant of oil prospecting license in respect of OPL
245 from Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company, Nigeria Agip Exploration Ltd, and ENI SPA.
FG had in December 2016, slammed nine-count criminal charge against Adoke and eight others over
the oil bloc scam.



http://mloaded.com.ng/2017/06/13/1-3bn-malabu-dea…-still-hiding-fg/