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Nigeria files graft charges against ex-minister over oil scandal
LAGOS, Jan 21, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Nigeria’s anti-graft agency said Tuesday it
had filed corruption charges against a former justice minister over a $1.3
billion dollar oil scandal involving international majors Shell and Eni.
Mohammed Adoke was arrested last month on arrival from the United Arab
Emirates where he had been detained on a Nigerian warrant in connection with
one of the West African state’s biggest-ever corruption scandals.
“We have filed multiple corruption charges in Abuja against Mr. Mohammed
Adoke in respect of the Malabu oil deal. The former minister will appear in
court soon,” Tony Oriade, spokesman for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, told AFP.
Oriade said Adoke, a former attorney general, was accused of money
laundering and collecting a bribe worth 300 million naira ($800,000, 750,000
euros) to broker the sale of lucrative offshore oil block OPL245 to Shell and
Eni.
Both oil companies deny any wrongdoing in the case dubbed the “Malabu
scandal” after the key company involved in the deals.
Adoke was alleged to have collected the bribe from a businessman, Abubakar
Aliyu, who has also been charged with him.
Eni and Shell are accused of handing out bribes during the 2011 purchase of
OPL245, an offshore oil block, for $1.3 billion.
Former oil minister Dan Etete is still on the run over the scandal.
It was during his time in office in 1998 that Malabu was illegally awarded
control of the block.
Accusations against the international oil majors have led to a string of
cases in a number of countries that have seen convictions in Italy and a
probe against Shell in the Netherlands.
BSS/AFP/RY/20:38 hrs