I only carried out presidential order – Adoke

He said, “The honourable judge was misled by the EFCC to grant the warrant. Justice Binta Nyako ruled in April 2018 that I was only carrying out a presidential order in the OPL 245/Malabu transaction and that I had no case to answer. That naturally ends the EFCC case against me but the agency has chosen this path and I will use all legal means to exonerate myself.” The EFCC had alleged that about $1.2bn fraudulently exchanged hands in alleged shady transactions over the highly lucrative Nigerian oil well, Oil Prospecting Licence 245, said to have been originally offered to Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd. by the then Gen. Sani Abacha junta under controversial circumstances in 1998. The EFCC on December 21, 2016, charged nine suspects, including Adoke (SAN), and others before the Federal High Court in Abuja with respect to the $1.1bn scam. Other accused persons named in the case were a former Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete, Aliyu Abubakar, Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd., Rocky Top Resource Ltd. and Imperial Union Ltd., Novel Properties & Dev. Co. Ltd., Group Construction Ltd., Megatech Engineering Ltd. The anti-graft agency, in the case with charge number FHC/ABJ/CR/268/2016, accused Adoke of illegally transferring over $800m purportedly meant for the purchase of the OPL 245 to Etete, Malabu Oil& Gas Limited from a Federal Government account. The EFCC also accused Aliyu, a businessman, who is the Chairman of A. A. Group and Rocky Top Services, of receiving $336,456,906.78. The charges read in part, “That you, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), on or about August 10, 2011 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, aided Dauzia Loya Etete (aka Dan Etete) and Malabu Oil & Gas Limited to commit the 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 & Gas through the Federal Government of Nigeria Escrow account with number 41451493, IBAN GB 30CHAS609242411493 with JP Morgan Chase Bank in London, which you reasonably ought to have known represented 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.” Another case marked FHC/ABJ/CR/39/2017 instituted before the Federal High Court in Abuja on March 2, 2017 has Adoke and Abubakar (of AA Oil) as defendants. The two defendants were accused of engaging in money laundering involving $2,267,400 in September 2013. The third case filed before the FCT High Court with charge number CR/124/2017 has 11 defendants, including Adoke,Etete, Shell, Agip and Eni. Others are Aliyu Abubakar ( of AA Oil Ltd.), Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, a director of Shell, Ralph Wetzels, and three Italian directors of Agip Exploration Ltd. – Casula Roberto, Putatti Stefeno and Burrafato Sebastiano. The defendants were particularly charged with conspiracy and official corruption in relation to their alleged acceptance of $801m from the oil companies in relation to the grant of OPL 245.]]>