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Buhari’s slow response stalls return of Etete’s $85m loot 

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Buhari takes investment drive to UN General Assembly
A United Kingdom-based newspaper, The Evening Standard of London, reports that the governing style of President Muhammadu Buhari is delaying the return of $85 million loot recovered from a former Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete.

 According to the report, “Buhari’s critics say his approach means that much-needed funds from corruption cases are not bringing in revenue for an ailing economy ravaged by low oil prices, and the oil blocks themselves are not being developed.”
The $85 million which is frozen in a NatWest bank account in London, is believed to be part of the proceeds from what has come to be referred to in many quarters as the Malabu contract deal.
The contract involved the award of the licence of OPL245 – an oilfield containing an estimated nine billion barrels of crude – given  by Etete to Malabu Oil & Gas,  for $20 million.

The deal raised eyebrows then as the licence was given out for just a tiny fraction of its real value.

It later sparked legal fireworks between Shell and Malabu with both claiming ownership of the oil field.

The federal government curiously, later sold it to Eni and Shell with $1.09 billion of the proceeds paid by the two companies going to Malabu.

Shell and Eni claimed ignorance of who paid the $1.09billion to Malabu.
The London newspaper however said that investigators at Britain’s National Crime Agency probing the alleged laundering of the OPL245 money through London banks and properties are being frustrated by alleged inaction from Nigeria’s end.
The report also said “Last week, the two governments agreed criminal assets stolen in Nigeria and seized in Britain can be returned to the West African country, but such breakthroughs are rare”.
The UK government is set to release the funds to Nigeria, but the African government has failed to send a proceeds-of-crime submission to the judge of a UK court which is stalling the recovery of the money.
This, the paper said, has left the funds ‘frozen’ and the court case ‘languishing’.
According to the report, “Buhari’s governing style is also a source of frustration, and critics say he is slow in his decision-making, which allows the EFCC to wallow in indecision.”
The Malabu Oil deal is believed to have  led to the siphoning off of $1 billion from a $1.3 billion international investment in the lucrative oil block through ‘fees’ to Etete’s company and middlemen.
High Court Judge Mr. Justice Edis said: “Given the large sums of money involved that are effectively paid to a former minister to a bank account in the Middle East, the whole exercise is backed by murky instructions.”
Nigeria’s Federal government is yet to respond to the paper’s claims.
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