MALABU: Int’l anti-graft bodies suspect AGF Malami may have been compromised

A number of international anti-corruption groups and their Nigerian affiliate have expressed suspicion over how the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami has handled the case surrounding the OPL245, now referred to as MALABU deal.

In the wake of the controversies around the Malabu deal, and efforts by the present administration to look into it, Malami, had written to President Muhammadu Buhari, urging him to back off in the legal battles against the principal actors in the deal.

The September 27, 2017 letter advised the president to pursue Nigeria’s possible investment in the disputed oil blocks rather than trying to repossess it or prosecute former government officials or Shell or Agip-Eni chiefs involved.

But the group made up of UK-based Global Witness, The Corner House, Italy-based Re: Common and Nigeria’s Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), has raised eyebrows, and written to Malami to clear the air over his involvement in what they view as an attempt to bury the case.

The groups wondered how Malami could now tell the president that the suspects have no case to answer in Nigeria, when he had been able to convince a court in the United Kingdom of wrongdoing against the same actors, leading the court to order for the successfully repatriated of $85 million from the Malabu funds from the UK to Nigeria.

“Mr Attorney-General, we are bound to conclude that we have either misunderstood your letter or (and it pains us to even suggest this) that the UK courts were misinformed.

“We understand the need to reassure investors that contracts will be respected. But we know of no jurisdiction where corrupt contracts are valid. Indeed, far from being reassured by the stance you have apparently taken, many investors will be appalled.

“On the face of it, your letter (when taken together with the FRN’s pleadings in the UK court) suggests that Nigeria’s Chief Law Office is willing to renegotiate tainted contracts provided the price is right

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“This will certainly be of comfort to some investors: but, we would submit, they are not investors whose activities are likely to be compatible with President Buhari’s commendable fight against corruption”, the group lamented.

On the involvement of Chief Dan Etete, a former minister of Petroleum, the group stated that: “Malabu received funds as a direct result of corrupt acts performed by the mind, management and controlling will of the defendant Chief Dan Etete, the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, who by entering into a corrupt arrangement with an oil consortium was able to obtain in excess of $1billion.”

Quoting from the statement of claim presented by the Nigerian government to the UK court towards the repatriation of the Malabu fund, the group equally observed that the Nigerian government in paragraphs 44-55, highlighted what was described as “unlawful and criminal offences” committed by Mr Etete in relation to OPL 245.

“Etete’s conduct in the use of Malabu as a front for his activities breached the Code of Conduct for Public Officials,” the Nigerian government stated explicitly.

The group therefore, said “We simply fail to understand how there could be no case for Mr Etete and others to answer in Nigeria when the FRN has sought redress in a court in the UK on the explicit basis that Mr Etete’s actions were “corrupt”, “unlawful” and “criminal”.

“We also note that Mr Etete, Shell, Eni, senior Shell and Eni executives and others are being prosecuted in Milan.

“We are similarly dumfounded that you should have argued to the President that the Resolution Agreement with Shell and Eni is “sacrosanct” when the FRN’s lawyers (acting on your behalf) have described the said agreement as “unconstitutional”, “corrupt” and “a conspiracy” to defraud Nigeria”.

 

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