THE Senate’s committee on the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) which submitted its report on Tuesday cleared Otunba Mike Adenuga and Globacom due to the transparency of operations of his many businesses, the Nigerian Tribune has reliably gathered.


Nigerian Tribune gathered from the committee members and the full Senate that the business activities of Adenuga were so well known to them that they possessed detailed information of how the business mogul laboured to build his thriving empire.


It was learnt that at the committee’s closed door meetings, members agreed on only the innocence of Adenuga in the scandal while bickering on the level of involvement of others. Most senators who are not members of the committee are reported to have also revealed that both Globacom and the business mogul are product of clean business transactions.


The release by a bank in Paris, France, giving details of how it helped Globacom to secure its operating licence contrary to the allegations of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was reported to be the last evidence needed to clear Adenuga.


Aside considering Adenuga’s antecedents, the report also showed that most members of the upper chamber disapproved of any action capable of disrupting the operations of Globacom. The telecoms giant is seen as the pride of the nation, employing thousands of Nigerians and providing first class telecoms services.


The clearance of Adenuga is reported to be enjoying overwhelming support of the senators with reports indicating that when eventually the report is put to vote, many will endorse the clearance of the Globacom boss.


In its report submitted to the Senate yesterday, the Senate committee had cleared Adenuga and Globacom, stating that after five months of investigations, it could neither establish any connection between Adenuga and PTDF nor between the Fund and Globacom.


The development has proved false claims by the EFCC that Adenuga and his company were involved in the mismanagement of PTDF money. With the verdict, both Adenuga and Globacom have been absolved of any wrongdoing in the alleged mismanagement of PTDF fund. The report has also debunked the stand of the EFCC that part of PTDF money was used to pay the licence fee of Globacom.

The committee submitted that though PTDF placed funds with Equitorial Trust Bank (ETB) in which Adenuga has interest, contrary to EFCC report that PTDF funds were used to pay for Globacom’s GSM licence, “there was no evidence of any lending relationship between ETB and Globacom.”


The committee also established that Dr. Adenuga is only a shareholder of ETB and that it could not “establish any link between PTDF and himself.”

Although both Globacom and Adenuga had consistently maintained their innocence of accusations by the EFCC of involvement in the mismanagement of the PTDF funds, the commission had continued to harass and vilify the business mogul even when there was no evidence to suggest any wrongdoing on his part or that of the companies in which he has interest including ETB and Globacom.


The Senate report also lends credence to public belief that the linking of Dr. Adenuga and his companies with the PTDF scandal was a witch-hunt because of his friendship with Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former president, Ibrahim Babangida.


Adenuga has always maintained that as a Nigerian, he was at liberty to associate with fellow Nigerians, including the two, as enunciated in the constitution of the Federal Republic and that he has friends scattered all over the country.


It will be recalled that the EFCC on a number of occasions broke into the home of Dr. Adenuga and his companies all in an effort to establish a case against him.

A preliminary perusal of the Senate Report on the PTDF excites both commendation and questions. There are grey areas which the full Senate has to delve into. A parliamentary committee report, when laid before the chamber, still has no life. The circulation and debate of the report is the next stage. The report can either be killed or confirmed by the Senate in full session. There could be amendments here and there and much more importantly, lobbying and counter-lobbying will determine what will eventually happen to the report.

A very commendable aspect of the report is the deserved clearance given to Otunba Mike Adenuga, the Bill Gates of our time. The report exonerated Globacom, the leader in Africa’s telecommunications industry. This is clearly justice delivered without fear or favour and with an eye on the need to build Nigeria as the leading nation, not only in black Africa, but across the entire continent.

Before going into the facts and figures, Senator Ndoma Egba (SAN) and his men acted courageously. The assignment is the most sensitive in recent legislative history. That such report emanated from a committee largely peopled by pro-presidency senators is a measure of the leadership sagacity of Senator Egba. The very delicate nature of the task, however, prevented the committee from being more forthcoming on its findings. While it takes courage to indict both the president and the vice president, it is also unsatisfactory that the committee dodged delving into some areas which could have further sanitised the polity.

The summary of the recommendations revealed that PTDF was badly managed both by the president and his deputy. This was partly due to agency’s enabling Act which removes its financial operations from the oversight and supervisory responsibilities of the National Assembly. This was addressed by the committee. Now the unanswered questions. The committee probed the MOFAS Account and indicted Otunba Johnson Fasawe on it. Curiously it refused to look into the Marine Float Account, claiming that it falls outside its jurisdiction.

“That the Marine Float Account should be independently investigated by the relevant organs of government especially the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) since the initial investigation by the EFCC has generated controversy,” the report noted. The above two conclusions could have been satisfactory, but for the very clear admission by the committee in one of the clauses: “No PTDF funds were traced directly to the said account. It was at best a second line beneficiary of the PTDF funds.”

Many will ask why the committee is interested only in the primary and not the secondary beneficiaries. Passing the buck to other agencies is unnecessary especially as the committee has displayed courage in probing one out of the two controversial accounts. There may be accusations of partisanship on this account. The second question is what has happened to Umar Pariya, the Vice-President’s personal assistant. He is left off the hook. But mischievous observers may read in between the lines by concluding that Pariya was not included so that the personal assistant to Mr. President could also be excluded.

The crux of the matter has to do with lodgements in two banks allegedly owned by friends of the vice-president’s friend. Based on the report, the said banks gave out loans to individuals and companies known to be friends of both the Vice-President and the President. The beneficiaries defaulted, but the loans are now restructured. “Though the loans have since been restructured with the acquisition of Trans International Bank (TIB) by Spring Bank, the loans cannot, however, be recovered outside the restructured framework without endangering the financial health of the bank“, the report read.

Many questions will trail the above deductions. Who approves the loans given out by the banks? What is the gap in date between the lodgement of the PTDF money and the time the bank gave out the loans? Was any of the said money lodged in Abubakar’s account? The Senate in session will probe all these. The other issue has to do with the areas affecting Mr. President. If PTDF funds were spent on projects the agency was not set up to fund, that qualifies also for abuse of office.

The committee also failed to probe those projects to see whether corruption manifests for which the approving authority should be held liable. The committee’s very mild wording of its recommendation on the President is a measure of its respect for the office of the President. May be that should have been extended to the entire presidency.

More questions are likely to be raised during the Senate deliberations on the report. The debate is likely to be very partisan and confrontational. When the question is put by Senate President Ken Nnamani, many hope it will not be like the handling of the last constitutional amendment report.

Big B1:

I'm Back:

It is amazing to me that all the dead heads that embraced the smudging of this man's image have totally disappeared. They have absolutely nothing to say to this new development; I guess it's true that people in general do no like good news.

Well, I'm very happy for this man and I'm glad that the truth finally arrived.