The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC boss Magu, had insisted that OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd in 1998 by the late military dictator, General Sani Abacha, against regulations.
Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke, has said he did not authorise the Malabu Oil deal, otherwise known OPL 245, but only conveyed the approval of then-President Goodluck Jonathan to all the parties involved in the transaction.
Adoke, who spoke in an interview with an online portal, said: “No, I did not authorise the transaction, I only conveyed the approval of the President to all the parties. Those are two different things. I did not authorise the transaction as I was not a signatory but only conveyed the president’s approval.”
Explaining the genesis of the transaction, Adoke said: “The Malabu issue has been in existence since 1998. I want to take it from 1998 because I have seen that in recent times, the EFCC has taken up interest in the matter with a view to persecuting me.
“In order to make me look bad they have deliberately bifurcated the transaction and have chosen to present the issues from 2010 when I became involved in the settlement. However,the transaction started in 1998, when the military administration of General Sani Abacha came up with the policy of encouraging indigenous participation in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry.
“They allocated oil blocks to indigenous companies on discretionary basis at a reduced signature bonus of $20 million. The beneficiaries include Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, South Atlantic Petroleum Ltd (owned by Theophilus Danjuma) and Famfa Oil Ltd (Folorunsho Alakija). Malabu was allocated OPL 245 and they made a part-payment of $2 million for the signature bonus and brought in Shell as technical partners.
EFCC, in a motion, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/14/2017, told the court that investigations revealed that Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd and SPDC showed that current serving senators of the federation were involved on the fraud thereby releasing the list of the senators to the high court, click the box below to view full lists now.
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