In a desperate attempt to muddle-up facts, convicted
felon, Dan Etete, has told a
British High Court that he is not the owner of Malabu Oil and Gas and thus not
the recipient of the $1.1 billion (N173 billion) fraudulently transferred to
Malabu by the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Oil giants, Shell and Eni,
through the federal government, paid the money to Malabu.
Mr. Etete, a former minister of petroleum, told the
court in a testimony he gave on a breach of contract suit brought against him
over the sale of the controversial oil block OPL 245 that he only made N37.5
billion ($250 million) working as a consultant for Malabu, the Economist is
reporting.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how Mr. Etete is the sole
signatory into the bank accounts that the federal government paid about $800
million (N126 billion) of the oil bloc sale into.
However, Mr. Etete, who was convicted for money
laundering in France in 2007, immediately contradicted himself in the same
testimony when he admitted to being the sole signatory to Malabu’s account and
couldn’t provide any evidence of other shareholders.
“I put my blood, I put my life into this oil block,” he
said yet he denied owning OPL245. When presented with a transcript of a
recording where he said: “It’s my block” Mr. Etete denied it claiming the
transcript was inaccurate.
Malabu’s Etete-appointed company secretary, Rasky
Gbinigie, who claimed to be a “family friend” of Mr. Etete insisted that he had
“lost the firm’s copy of the register of shareholders and all minutes of
meetings, that there was no written correspondence between him, the directors
and the shareholders, and that he had no documents to verify who put up the
company’s original share capital.”
Mr. Etete also admitted in the court, what PREMIUM TIMES
investigations had revealed, that the infamous Kweku Amafegha who was named as
Malabu’s “nominee director” was an alias he uses constantly. According to him,
he had open bank accounts in the past that he always used when he went out for
secret missions internationally.
PREMIUM TIMES had exclusively reported how Mr. Etete,
then Petroleum Minister in 1998, violated Nigerian laws by creating a fictional
character, Mr. Amafegha, to be a shareholder in a newly formed company, Malabu.
He then awarded two oil blocs, including the disputed OPL 245, to the company;
which also had Mohammed Sani, son of then military dictator, Sani Abacha, as a
shareholder.
Nondescript businessman, Zubelum Obi, owner of oil
consulting firm, Energy Venture Partners Limited, EVP, who is claiming a N30
billion ($200 million) compensation for acting as middleman in the sales of oil
block OPL 245, brought the breach of contract suit against Mr. Etete.
Adoke as Etete’s lawyer
Fresh fact also emerged during the trial as to why
Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, played a prominent and
dubious role in the fraudulent transfer of N155 billion to Mr. Etete.
The documents show that Mr. Adoke once worked as counsel
to Mr. Etete. Sources knowledgeable about both men said this was during and
immediately after the military era, when the ex-convict was still minister. Mr.
Adoke’s spokesperson, Ambrose Momoh, did not pick calls to his phone seeking to
confirm the prior relationship between both men.
Mr. Adoke has been instrumental to the success of the
illegal acquisition and sale of OPL 245 by Mr. Etete using his position as the
nation’s chief law officer. Following advice by Russian oil consultant, Ednan
Agaev, to use the Federal government as a conduit for the transfer to Mr.
Etete, Mr. Adoke willing obliged to make the shady deal sail through.
International pressure
Due to the murky nature of the deal and
less-than-ethical role played by international oil firms, ENI and Shell and
following pressure from anti-corruption campaigners such as Global Witness, the
European Union Parliament last Wednesday voted to make EU-based resources
companies disclose all payments of at least €100,000 (N21.5 million) on any
project. The Canadian government is also working on enacting laws similar to
the EU’s
Campaigners say this new rule will reduce corruption as
well as enhance transparency in the extractive industry.
“The new transparency rules in Europe and the
announcement from the Canadian Prime Minister are two key advancements for
anyone who cares about fighting poverty, protecting investors, making markets
more efficient, or reducing corruption,” said Global Financial Integrity (GFI)
Director Raymond Baker.
“Our research shows that the developing world loses
roughly US$1 trillion per year to crime, corruption, and tax evasion. This is a
systemic problem caused largely by the opaque, secretive global financial
system. For citizens of resource-rich countries, the new EU rules—as well as
the potential Canadian rules—will shine a light in places that need it most.”
The United States Department of
Justice, DoJ, is also beginning to show increasing interest in the Malabu deal
with at least one of the parties involved in the sale already contacted.
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