$1.1bn Malabu oil deal: EFCC levels fresh charges against Etete, Adoke, others

In its renewed effort to ensure those involved in the shady $2.2bn Malabu oil deal do not go scot free, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has filed fresh charges against former Petroleum Minister, Dan Etete.

Charged along Etete is the former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke and a controversial businessman, Abubakar Aliyu, for their involvement in the ‎$1.1 billion Malabu oil deal.

The charges were filed on Tuesday at the Federal High Court in Abuja, although the case is yet to be assigned to any judge.

EFCC alleges, among other things, that Adoke and former Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, approved the transfer of about $1.1 billion into Nigerian accounts controlled by Mr. Etete. The money was said to have been paid by major oil firms, Shell and ENI, but was transferred to accounts run by Aliyu after the initial transfer to Etete.

The House of Representatives had sometime in October resurrected the case and mandated its ad-hoc committee set up for the purpose, to launch a fresh investigation into the alleged corrupt malpractice and breach of due process in the award of the licence to multiple firms.

Read also: Why Nigeria won’t go far in reopening Malabu oil deal

Then, sources familiar with case had told Ripples Nigeria that little or no positive end will come from the new probe because there was no loose-end created by those that entered into the contract.

However, the Reps ad-hoc committee’s chairman, Razak Atunwa, vowed that nothing will deter his committee from digging into the case to expose what he tagged lack of transparency surrounding the award of the licence, which had cost Nigeria more than $1.1 billion.

According to him, even if Nigeria had recovered the $110 million currently being held by the United Kingdom authorities as proceeds from illegal charges from Italian prosecutors, who had received the funds from the deal in Swiss accounts, Nigeria would have made up part of the controversial deal.

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