The Nation - Eighteen years after Nigeria’s
richest oil block, OPL 245, was controversially awarded to a new company, the
then petroleum minister has been charged for crimes related to the block.
Dan Etete was petroleum minister in
1998 under the military dictator, Sani Abacha, when the block was awarded to
Malabu Oil and Gas, a firm he partly owned. The company was registered on April
20, 1998 and was awarded the block nine days later.
The Department of Petroleum
Resources last week confirmed that due process was not followed in the award of
the block and that it was awarded to Malabu only on the directive of Mr.
Abacha.
In the nine-count charge filed at
the Federal High Court by the anti-graft agency, EFCC, on Tuesday, Mr. Etete
featured in seven of them.
However, the charges were not
related to the controversial award of the block in 1998, they were related to
incidents that happened 13 years later, in 2011.
After several political and
judicial intrigues that ensured OPL 245 changed hands several times between
Malabu, Shell, and the Nigerian government, Goodluck Jonathan emerged Nigeria’s
president in 2010. On the prompting of his attorney general, Mohammed Adoke,
one of Mr. Jonathan’s first directive upon assuming office was that the oil
block be given to Malabu.
Persons close to Mr. Jonathan told
PREMIUM TIMES the former president took the decision because of his closeness
to Mr. Etete who had helped him during his tenure as petroleum minister and
because of the perception among persons from the oil producing Niger Delta that
OPL 245 was one of the few oil blocks awarded to someone from the region.
By 2010, Mr. Etete had schemed out
other owners of Malabu including by fraudulently altering Corporate Affairs
Corporation, CAC, documents, investigations revealed.
The CAC last week said its official
in charge of the Malabu documents was “brutally murdered”.
Despite Mr. Jonathan’s directive
that Malabu be given OPL 245, the company really did not exist and had no staff
or technical competence to manage the block.
Based on advice from desperate businessmen including an Israeli, Ednan
Agaev, Mr. Etete decided to cash in on the block. Through various middlemen,
the former minister approached oil giants, Shell and ENI, to buy the block.
Knowing Mr. Etete’s history including the fact that he had been convicted in
France for money laundering, the oil firms would not do a direct deal.
For the transaction to continue, a
legally recognised mediator would have to be found.
That mediator turned out to be the
Nigerian government, represented by Mr. Adoke.
The agreements that were sealed led
to Shell and ENI paying the $1.1 billion into a Nigerian government account in
JP Morgan Chase in London. The money was to then be transferred to Malabu
accounts controlled by Mr. Etete.
Although Shell and ENI have
repeatedly claimed they did not know the money was going to end up with Malabu,
investigations in Nigeria and Italy as well as leaked documents revealed that
claim to be false. Mr. Adoke, himself would later admit that he, on behalf of
the federal government, only acted as a mediator for two willing parties –
Malabu and the oil majors. Mr. Adoke was, however, aware of the various
fraudulent manipulations of Malabu by Mr. Etete when he authorised the
transaction, multiple sources have told PREMIUM TIMES.
THE TRANSFERS TO FRAUDULENT FIRMS
To ensure no one stopped the shady
transfer of the $1.1 billion to Mr. Etete, the money had to be quickly
transferred. More so, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was set to assume office as Nigeria’s
Finance Minister and the officials involved were not sure she would play ball.
On August 16, 2011, a day before
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala was to assume office, Mr. Adoke and the then Minister of
State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, authorised the transfer of the money to Malabu
accounts in Nigeria controlled by Mr. Adoke. However, all the $1.1 billion
could not be transferred. Emeka Obi, a man who claimed he helped broker the
deal between Malabu and the oil majors filed a suit in the UK, that ensured
$215 million was frozen of the money. The remaining $801 million were
subsequently transferred to Mr. Etete: $400 million was transferred to a Bank
PHB account while $401 million was transferred to a First Bank account.
Immediately Mr. Etete received the
money, curious transfers began. PREMIUM TIMES investigations, now confirmed by
the EFCC, reveal that shady companies linked to Abubakar Aliyu received about
$479 million dollars from Mr. Etete. Our investigations later showed that most
of the companies were non-existent and used fake addresses in their
registration documents.
The companies – Rocky Top Resource
Ltd, Imperial Union Ltd, Novel Properties & Dev. Co. Ltd, A-Group
Construction Ltd, and Megatech Engineering Ltd – were all charged in the suit
filed on Tuesday by the EFCC.
While Mr. Etete later admitted that
only $250 million of the money paid into his account was his, Mr. Aliyu is
believed to have acted as a front for officials of the Goodluck Jonathan
administration including Mr. Adoke.
The nine-count charge was filed at
the Federal High Court, Abuja by a team of lawyers, including Johnson Ojogbane,
C.C. Nduese, H.M. Mohammed, and Victor Ukagwu.
No date has been filed for the
arraignment of the suspects, some of whom are outside the country.
The charges read in part:
“That you Dauzia Loya Etete (aka
Dan Etete) and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited on or about 24th August 2011 in Abuja
within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court directly or indirectly took
control of $400million only paid from the Federal Government of Nigeria Escrow
Account No. 41451493 IBAN 30CHAS699242411492 with JP Morgan Chase Bank in
London into the account of Malabu Oil and Gas Limited domiciled in PHB PLC (now Keystone Bank) Account No.
1005552028 when you knew that the funds formed part of the proceeds of an
unlawful activity to wit: Fraud and thereby committed an offence contrary to
Section 15(2) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012
and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.
“That you Dauzia Loya Etete (aka
Dan Etete) and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited on or about the 10th August 2011 in
Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Ciurt directly or indirectly
took control of the sum of $401million only paid from the Federal Government of
Nigeria Escrow Account No. 41451493 IBAN
GB 30CHAS699242411492 with JP Morgan Chase Bank in London into the
account of Malabu Oil and Gas Limited domiciled in First Bank Nigeria Plc
in Account No. 2011828805 when you knew
that the funds formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity to wit:
Fraud and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2) of the Money
Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and ounishable under
Section 15(3) of the same Act.
“That you Dauzia Loya Etete( aka
Dan Etete) and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited on or about the 10th August 2011 in
Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court converted the sum of
$400m only which sum was transferred
from the Federal Government of Nigeria Escrow Account No. 41451493
IBAN GB 30CHAS609242411493 with JP
Morgan Chase Bank in London into the account of Malabu Oil and Gas Limited
domiciled in Bank PHB Plc( now Keystone Bank) Account No. 1005552028 which you
claimed was received as payment for Oil Prospecting Licence ( OPL 245) when you knew that the funds formed part of
the proceeds of an unlawful activity to wit: Fraud and thereby committed an
offence contrary to Section 15(2) of the Money Laundering ( Prohibition) Act
2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.
“That you Dauzia Loya Etete( aka
Dan Etete) and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited on or about the 10th August 2011 in
Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court directly or indirectly
converted the sum of $401,540,000( $401.540m) only which sum was
transferred from the Federal Government
of Nigeria Escrow Account No. 41451493 IBAN
GB 30CHAS609242411493 with JP Morgan Chase Bank in London into the
account of Malabu Oil and Gas Limited domiciled in Bank PHB Plc( now Keystone
Bank) Account No. 1005552028 which you purportedly claimed was received as
payment for Oil Prospecting Licence ( OPL 245)
when you knew that the funds formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful
activity to wit: Fraud and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section
15(2) of the Money Laundering ( Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and
punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.
“That you Aliyu Abubakar,
Rocky Top Resources Limited, sometime in
2011 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did retain the
sum of $336,456,906.78 only in Bank PHB Plc (now Keystone Bank) Account No.
100555202 belonging to Rocky Top Resources Limited when you reasonably ought to have known that the said funds
formed part of the proceeds of an
unlawful activity of Dan Etete and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited to wit: Fraud and
thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2) of the Money Laundering
( Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3)
of the same Act.
“That you Dauzia Loya Etete( aka
Dan Etete) and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited sometime in Abuja within the
jurisdiction of this Honourable Court having reason to know that the aggregate
sum of $801,540,000 only directly represent the proceeds of an unlawful activity
of Malabu Oil and Gas Limited to wit, fraud in respect of the said amount used
the said funds and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2)
of the Money Laundering ( Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and
punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.
“That you Dauzia Loya Etete( aka
Dan Etete) and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited and Mohammed Adoke Bello( SAN)
sometime in 2011 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court
conspired among yourselves to commit money laundering offences contrary to
Section 18 of the Money Laundering (
Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) of
the same Act.
“That you Mohammed Adoke Bello(
SAN) on or about the 10th August 2011 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this
Honourable Court aided Dauzia Loya Etete( aka Dan Etete)
and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited to commit an offence of money laundering by
facilitating the payment of an aggregate sum of $801,540,000 only to Dauzia
Loya Etete( aka Dan Etete) and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited through the Federal
Government of Nigeria Escrow Account No. 41451493 IBAN GB 30CHAS609242411493 with JP Morgan Chase
Bank in London which you reasonably ought to have known that the said funds
formed part of the proceeds of an
unlawful activity to wit; fraud and
thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(a) of the Money Laundering
( Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3)
of the same Act.
“That you Aliyu Abubakar,
Rocky Top Resources Limited, Novel
Properties and Development Company Limited, Group Construction Limited and
Megatech Engineering Limited between August and December 2011 in Abuja within the jurisdiction of this
Honourable Court disguised the origin of an aggregate sum of $478,693,750 only
by paying several companies for services rendered when you reasonably ought to have known that the said funds
directly represented the proceeds of an unlawful activity of Dauzia Loya Etete(
aka Dan Etete) and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited to wit fraud and thereby
committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2) (a) of the Money Laundering
(Prohibition) Act 2011 as amended in 2012 and punishable under Section 15(3) of
the same Act.”
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