₦airaland Forum

[size=14pt]How President Jonathan, AGF Adoke, Awarded Chinese Oil Company Linked To Emeka Offor $3b "Judgement Deal" Days Before Leaving Office[/size]


A few days before the end of his tenure, former President Goodluck Jonathan and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Bello Adoke, connived to award more than $3 billion in crude oil to a Chinese oil company linked to a controversial businessman, Emeka Offor, SaharaReporters has reliably learned.


The highly questionable deal was consummated through a judgment handed down by a High Court judge who was also in on the deal, according to a source close to the deal.

In December 2014, Addax Petroleum Development (Nigeria) Limited and Addax Petroleum Exploration (Nigeria) Limited, sued the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) seeking a huge financial award in what the company described as miscalculation of oil royalty and taxes, and breach of their 1998 “production sharing” contract with the NNPC in respect of certain oil fields.

The contract covered oil-prospecting licenses (OPL) 98/118 (now Oil Mining Leases 123, 124, 136 and 137).

In an extensive interview with our correspondent, the source claimed that Addax’s lawsuit was at the urging of Mr. Adoke, who should have been protecting the Nigerian public’s interest.

In a letter dated April 2, 2015, Mr. Adoke proposed that President Jonathan approve an out-of-court settlement of the lawsuit, tagged FJC/ABJ/CS/1099/2014 and filed on December 23, 2014. In the letter to President Jonathan, the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice also indicated that he was attaching a letter dated the same day from the legal department of the NNPC.

Mr. Adoke’s letter was fast-tracked in a manner that two legal authorities separately described as “highly unusual” and “unseemly.” On May 25, a mere four days before the end of President Jonathan’s tenure, a Federal High Court judge in Abuja had concluded the terms of the out-of-court settlement. The judge’s “judgment order” excluded the office of the AGF because Mr. Adoke did not send any lawyers to represent the government at the final judgment.

“It’s highly curious that the ‘judgment order” did not list the AGF’s office as a defendant in the lawsuit. Yet, the AGF [Adoke] was the person generating a legal memo to the president [Jonathan] for an out-of-court settlement,” said an Abuja-based lawyer after reviewing the case.

Nonetheless, the judge read out the terms of the agreement and gave an order sealing it, but his judgment order did not include the hidden cost of the judgment.

This act of judicial concealment has baffled the lawyers who looked at the document. SaharaReporters obtained a copy of the hidden terms of agreement that puts the total value of NNPC’s indebtedness to Addax at more than $3 billion—specifically, a whopping $3,491,588,729.64. The judgment debt would be paid to Addax via crude oil lifting that could last for numerous years, an NNPC source disclosed.

Addax Petroleum has claimed that a letter signed by Funsho Kupolokun, who was adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Petroleum, gave the company the right to a production-sharing contract relating to the oil fields named in their original lawsuit.

Addax also claimed that, because of that letter from the presidential adviser, his company spent about $3 billion on the development of the oil fields.

One of the lawyers who reviewed the case for SaharaReporters wondered why it took Addax no earlier than 2014 before they sued the Federal Government for the alleged breach of contract.

Contacted by SaharaReporters to disclose Mr. Offor’s full involvement in the judgement scam, his representatives expressed preference for communication by email.

Hours after we complied, Edwin Ndukwe of the Communications Department of Offor’s Chrome Group sent a response in which he denied that Mr. Offor was the 'outlet' through which Addax facilitated the settlement.

“Sir Emeka had absolutely no hand or control in the proceedings of the court, which led to the outcome you inferred,” he said. “He is not a shareholder and he did not enter into any agreement to influence or sponsor the outcome of the court's decision. Addax Petroleum is gigantic enough to weigh in by itself on any judicial matters bothering on their business conduct in Nigeria.”

He asserted that the Addax/Kaztec business to business relationship began in 2010 when Kaztec was awarded the TB 1921 contract for the installation of subsea pipeline and topsides in OML 123.

“Since then, the relationship grew between the two as evident in the project being duly completed. Kaztec is a wholly 100% owned indigenous EPIC service provider in the oil & gas industry. It has performed very well over the years and have received numerous commendations for their technical competence and their ability to deliver on projects timeously and at significantly reduced cost from not just Addax but other firms.”

We also reached out to NNPC spokesperson, Ohi Alegebe to ask how the NNPC intends to pay the debt as stipulated in the final judgement. He said he needed to reach the Legal Department of the NNPC to find out the details, but did not get back to us at the time of publishing this story.

For their part, Addax offices in Abuja told our reporters that all of the company communication personnel were tied up in a training which involved the Managing Director, Mr. Cor Zegelaar, and cannot respond to our inquiries until next week.

In a recent interview with Premium Times, former President Obasanjo openly accused Mr. Offor of scamming Nigeria out of billions of dollars in the so-called turn-around maintenance of refineries, calling him an ‘amateur’ who knew nothing about maintaining a refinery. He stated that Mr. Offor had infiltrated the police and anti-corruption agencies and NNPC officials to facilitate his scams.

“[We met] refineries that were not working, refineries that were given to an amateur for repairs, for maintenance, what they call turn-around maintenance, to the company of Emeka Offor – Chrome Group,” he said of his government. [size=14pt]“Where has Emeka Offor maintained refineries before? Where has he? That’s what we met. So the refineries were not working.”[/size]

Reminded by his interviewers that despite that discovery he did not recover any money from Mr. Offor, the former President replied: “What can you recover? A man ‎who was paid upfront? He had people. He got some police…people were there. And like they have said to you now, look, if it works for a week, that’s all you get. And Emeka Offor, after I left he became friends with every government that has come. Now he’s not only into refinery and oil and all that, he’s now also in energy!”

The United States Justice Department revealed that the All Progressive Congress Presidential Candidate, APC, Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Aisha Buhari, was used as conduit and engaged in fraudulent wire transfers, from her Nigerian account in favour of Congressman Jefferson via the ANJ Group LLC.

The US District Court Memo states that Congressman William J. Jefferson between August 2000 and August 2005, Congressman Jefferson sought hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of himself and family members.

In return, the defendant used his congressional office to promote the business interests of bribe-paying companies whose very success was dependent upon the approvals of certain United States and West African government agencies and officials.

Congressman Jefferson further compounded his criminal culpability by conspiring with others to pay a bribe to the then-sitting Vice President of Nigeria.

The WhistleNG in an exclusive report stated that in hushed and sometimes cryptic taped recorded conversations, Congressman Jefferson explained in detail how the success of the Nigerian telecommunications venture depended on bribing the Vice President of Nigeria, who the defendant described as “really corrupt.”

The US District Court during their investigation also revealed that William’s Jefferson in one of his numerous bribe schemes wired $170,000 to a Nigerian account in the name of Aisha Buhari.

“During the investigation of his numerous bribe schemes, law enforcement agents learned of several wire transfers from offshore territories into U.S. financial accounts that were either controlled by the defendant or whose proceeds were made available for his benefit.

See Donald C. Semesky, Jr., Tr. at 104 – 116; see also Government Exhibits 36-87 (6/26/02 $170,000 wire transfer from account in Nigeria in the name of Aisha Buhari to an account in the name of The ANJ Group, LLC, identifying “William Jefferson” as Beneficiary), Government Exhibits 36-90 and 36-91 (11/28/03 $50,000 wire transfer from account in British Virgin Islands in the name of Dawson Creek Traders to an account in the name of Jefferson Interests, Inc.

The Economic and Financial Crime Commission in their reports dated June 22, 2006 also stated that former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar was summoned by the US government for Investigation into the iGate/NDTV business deals involving Congressman Jefferson which also contained Hajia Aisha M. Buhari’s Bank records and transfer history.

Reports from New York Times Story (April 29, 2007) revealed Aisha Buhari on the dubious $1.2m campaigning contract to help the Former Akwa Ibom State Gov, Obong Attah, boost his image and attract investment to Akwa Ibom in his bid to become President of Nigeria, as well as a contract where Aisha Buhari served as a consultant to orchestrate enormous name golfers to go to the opening of the Uyo Golf Resort commissioned by Former Governor Obong Attah.

As indicated by the Nytimes story “she (Aisha Buhari told him that her father was the former military ruler of Nigeria, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, and that her American friends included politicians like Mr. Jefferson of Louisiana.”

The former governor also verified the claim by New York Times when he said, he knows Ms. Buhari’s father, who is still a powerful Nigerian politician, by reputation. He also met her, he said, in 2001 when she accompanied a group of American politicians that included Mr. Jefferson to Akwa Ibom to see oil-related pollution problems there.

“All I needed to do was ask Aisha if she knew him,” Mr. Attah recalls.

General Buhari has since denied that Aisha Buhari is his daughter in spite of the contrary proofs, pretty much as he denied his adopted son, Mr. Mohammed Buhari who was likewise captured in May 2014 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for swindling a woman Mrs. Nwokwocha Florence of N20m to put resources into an oil and gas business with a guarantee to make mouthwatering returns to the woman.

Dhugal:
So,I read through all this twice and nowhere was Emeka Offor linked,either to this deal or the parties involved.
Subtly trying to whip up primordial sentiments to serve political purposes again,ain't you Gbawe?

Gbawe:
Bruv, you yourself know that GEJ is a crook who abetted the horrid looting of Nigeria by his cronies. What "sentiments" am I whipping up when GEJ is out of office, irrelevant and powerless? I just want him and his crooked and heartless minions to pay for destroying Nigeria. There is no serious nation of the world where a deterrent system is lacking. I like to put issues like this in the public domain so that Buhari does not become complacent and 'benevolent'. There should always be conseqeunces for wrongdoing otherwise no one would hesitate to commit crime and to harm others.

Dhugal:
An out-of-court settlement that was approved by a High Court judge no less and for which none of the parties involved had cried foul,no EFCC investigation whatsoever,not even a pip from the presidency as we've come to expect,yet you would malign not only an innocent-of-the affair businessman as Emeka Offor,but go further to try to taint the reputation of the judge by insidious allusion and you expect any right thinking man to applaud you.
Why hasn't the deal been cancelled or the present NNPC gone on appeal of the judgement?.
Why has no one been invited for questioning over the deal?.Has any petition against the judge been sent to the NJC?.And for Christ sakes,can you tell me why Offor,who has little to no link with the deal,was dragged into this story,if not to achieve some primordial political purpose?.
You know,that dead horse your ilk has been beating,about Jonathan,Easterners and corruption.

to achieve some primordial political purpose

TheFreeOne:
Like you said all he wanted to do is

Gbawe:
Lawd . Jonathan really took Nigeria to the cleaners. I am personally not surprised because I have always believed he is a very callous and wicked leader who did not care about the suffering of Nigerians. With that wicked and avaricious woman behind him, i.e "mama peace", I am sure it was very easy for them to justify their looting of Nigeria to themselves. I can imagine Jonathan's crude wife saying "na awa oil and awa money" and "maga don pay"

Yet the Country is now in dire straits because of the looting of Ali Baba (Jonathan) and his 40 thieves (Allison-Madueke, Adoke Bello et al). I will have a serious problem with Buhari if crooks like Adoke Bello and Allison-Madueke are not made to pay for their heinous looting which has destroyed Nigeria and the future of millions.

Gbawe:
Lawd . Jonathan really took Nigeria to the cleaners. I am personally not surprised because I have always believed he is a very callous and wicked leader who did not care about the suffering of Nigerians. With that wicked and avaricious woman behind him, i.e "mama peace", I am sure it was very easy for them to justify their looting of Nigeria to themselves. I can imagine Jonathan's crude wife saying "na awa oil and awa money" and "maga don pay"

Yet the Country is now in dire straits because of the looting of Ali Baba (Jonathan) and his 40 thieves (Allison-Madueke, Adoke Bello et al). I will have a serious problem with Buhari if crooks like Adoke Bello and Allison-Madueke are not made to pay for their heinous looting which has destroyed Nigeria and the future of millions.

Dhugal:
An out-of-court settlement that was approved by a High Court judge no less and for which none of the parties involved had cried foul,no EFCC investigation whatsoever,not even a pip from the presidency as we've come to expect,yet you would malign not only an innocent-of-the affair businessman as Emeka Offor,but go further to try to taint the reputation of the judge by insidious allusion and you expect any right thinking man to applaud you.
Why hasn't the deal been cancelled or the present NNPC gone on appeal of the judgement?.
Why has no one been invited for questioning over the deal?.Has any petition against the judge been sent to the NJC?.And for Christ sakes,can you tell me why Offor,who has little to no link with the deal,was dragged into this story,if not to achieve some primordial political purpose?.
You know,that dead horse your ilk has been beating,about Jonathan,Easterners and corruption.

patrick89:
I can unequivocal state that you are very silly and foolish! what is wrong in awarding oil well to emeka? but your ugly monkey obasanjo awarded ot otedola, adenuga and folorunsho! you silly dimgbat can call me tribalist but your are irritating! I know for sure, that since I was born I have never seen a yoruba person condemn what his brother or sister does in his presence! If you like be his padi padi! he will go mute!! gerraourahere!!! vultures..

ECOTERRORS:
I always laugh at the way you people have turned IBB and Abacha to saints.

Gbawe:
No one has proclaimed IBB and Abacha saintly. Yet, how far back do you guys want Buhari to go? Perhaps he should probe Lord Lugard as well? Check the trend worldwide and you will see , for many logical reasons, that Governments always look at the activities and misconducts of the immediate past government.It is as simple as that.

tinkinjow:
I wonder where this guys ll report when the niger delta finally take control of their oil.
It's happening sooner than later.

Gbawe:
No one has proclaimed IBB and Abacha saintly. Yet, how far back do you guys want Buhari to go? Perhaps he should probe Lord Lugard as well? Check the trend worldwide and you will see , for many logical reasons, that Governments always look at the activities and misconducts of the immediate past government.It is as simple as that.

owobokiri:
You want to probe? But you dont want to start with Governor General Macpherson? Ok, Let's start from 1999. The inception of this democratic rule. Is that too far? Let's know how the Otedolas, the Wale Tinubus and the Jimohs of this world became emergency captains of industries under Obasanjo. . You want to probe Emeka Offor, but can't stand any probe of Adenuga or Danjuma? Tribally distorted minds. .

TheFreeOne:
Can a bigot with ethnic bias genuinely and successfully fight corruption in a multi ethnic society like ours

Only an all inclusive fight against corruption will work not singling out immediate past administration whilst OBJ, IBB, AMEACHI, TINUBU, FASHOLA, NYAKO, ATIKU and others walk free.

[size=15pt]Let Buhari revisit Halliburton bribery scandal too cos a better Nigeria with fairness and justice is what we want[/size].

Nnemuka:
GEJ is nolonger the president of Nigeria...
Lets discuss Buhari's wasted 100 days in office....