By SaharaReporters, New York

The Goodluck Jonathan government is finally taking action over the Halliburton scandal: it is taking to court some of the Nigerians involved.

But the Nigerian court trial arising from the scandal totally ignores the big fishes involved. Conspicuously missing are such names as former president Olusegun Obasanjo, former military head of state, Abdusallam Abubakar and late military dictator, Sanni Abacha, a clear indication the trial will leave Nigeria’s “Big Men” unscathed.
The initial trial features only 12 persons, largely small time officials, and companies. The big hitters were never invited for interrogation by the Okiro panel, either.
The scandal has so far netted the United States over N1 billion in fines and resulted in the conviction of Halliburton officials.

Saharareporters learnt from Nigeria presidency sources that Mr. Jonathan ordered the trial after word reached him that the chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Farida Waziri, has told US officials that Jonathan was hampering her efforts at fighting corruption. Mrs. Wazirit also repeated her complaints to UN anti-corruption officials during the launching of the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) in Vienna, Austria.
Following our report of this story last week, Saharareporters has learnt that Mrs. Waziri was interrogated by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) over the statements credited to her and another recent statement where she said nothing could be done about Halliburton bribe takers.

Mr. Jonathan is due to attend the upcoming United Nations General Assembly in New York and plans to address the General Assembly, a ritual that Nigeria has not performed at the top level in the last 3 years.

The Jonathan “small fish” trial seems designed to put him in favorable light during his visit. Jonathan is expected to build the commencement of the trial into his General Assembly address, which is now being drafted. He also plans to refer to it frequently in bilateral discussions with the US, EU and UK officials as a measure of his credibility.

Those facing trial also exclude NNPC officials, PDP party leaders, and high ranking Nigerian officials involved in the bribery scam.

Halliburton scandal: List of suspects and charges

The suspects are:

1.Adeyanju Bodunde

2.George Mark

3.Hans George Christ

4. Heinrich J. Stockhausen

5.Julius Berger Nigeria Plc

6. Bilfinger Berger GMBH.

7.Ibrahim Aliyu

8. AVM Abdullahi Dominic Bello

9. Mohammed Gidado Bakare

10.Urban Shelter Limited

11.Intercellular Nigeria Limited

12.Sherwood Petroleum Limited

13. Tri-Star Investment Limited

14.Maizube Holdings Limited

15. TSKJ Nigeria Limited-(a) Technip S.A.; (b)Snamprogetti Netherlands B.V. (c) Kellogg Brown and Root Inc(d) Japan Gasoline Corporation of Japan.

see this enemy of PROGRESS,
always against GJ,

seanet03:

see this enemy of PROGRESS,
always against GJ,

You wont find progress through PDP.

EzeUche22:

You wont find progress through PDP.

neither through IBB or Ojukwus APGA

seanet03:

neither through IBB or Ojukwus APGA

speak for your self dude.

ferari90:



speak for your self dude.

how? by campaigning for a DRUG BARON or POLITICAL JOBBERS LIKE OJUKWU

Vote Buhari this Saturday

Guys, there's this online service that lets you campaign to your Friends specially to those who may not have access to the Internet. Let's win this election men. Its obvious that Ribadu is the right guy.
http://thetimeisnownigeria.com/campaigns/sms_message/new


Read what really happened at the alliance talk here:
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/04/why-acn-cpc-talks-collapsed/