Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF) Bello Adoke on Friday offered some insights into losses he suffered while facing prosecution by the Nigerian government in the last four years.
His remarks came after he was exonerated of money laundering charges by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday.
The acquittal is in step with an earlier decision of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja, similarly freeing him of bribery charges exactly three weeks ago.
The two court judgments in the last three weeks ended the two criminal trials he has faced since 2020.
Mr Adoke recalled, on Friday, his ordeals grappling with an extensive backlash, including loss of job opportunities, over the allegations that culminated in his trials which began in 2020. He said the unwarranted retribution started since leaving office as the AGF in 2015.
“It has been a harrowing experience that has lasted for over nine years due mainly to the antics of the prosecution, which hurriedly filed charges against me to satisfy some narrow political interests but became reluctant to prove their case for want of evidence,” he said in a statement that he issued after Friday’s court judgement.
During the nine gruelling years, Mr Adoke said, he “became an object of a political witchhunt and scapegoatism as the EFCC needed to hang corruption charges on my neck…”
The Malabu saga is at the heart of the two cases.
It involved about $1.1 billion transferred by Shell and ENI through the Nigerian government to accounts controlled by a former Nigerian petroleum minister, Dan Etete.
Nigeria, the original owner of the OPL 245, was shortchanged in the complex web of transactions and ownership disputes that has dogged the oil asset since 1993 when it was first controversially awarded to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, according to prosecutors and activists.
The funds that were allegedly meant for Nigeria were used to bribe officials, they said.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) accused Mr Adoke of benefitting fraudulently from the Malabu deal he helped to broker as the then AGF in 2011. The settlement agreement was meant to cede ownership of the OPL 245 to oil giants, Shell and Eni, after decades-long battle over it.
Mr Adoke, who was justice minister under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, was charged with bribery, among other sundry offences alongside a businessman, Aliyu Abubakar; Rasky Gbinigie; Malabu Oil and Gas Limited; Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited; Shell Nigeria Extra Deep Limited and Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company Limited over the Malabu oil scam.
They were arraigned before the FCT High Court in Abuja in February 2020 on a 40-count amended charge.
The EFCC would later admit that it lacked evidence against Mr Adoke in the case, leading to the court’s decision to dismiss the charges three weeks ago.
In the other case filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, EFCC accused him and Mr Abubakar of money laundering involving N300 million that was mentioned as proceeds of bribery in the FCT High Court case.
The court similarly discharged and acquitted Mr Adoke on Friday, but ruled that his co-defendant still had case to answer.
Campaign of calumny
Mr Adoke said despite the legal advice from his successor, Abubakar Malami, the formal opinion of a petroleum minister, Ibe Kachikwu, both during the President Muhammadu Buhari administration as wel
as well as a court judgement, exonerating him of wrongdoing in the Malabu saga, the EFCC went on to press corruption charges against him and other entities.
He said the EFCC was relentless in its “campaign of calumny” within and outside Nigeria, with the attendant consequences being deprivation of job opportunities on account of the reputational damage he suffered.
The former minister lauded his family and friends who came to his aid while the trial lasted.
Mr Adoke expressed his faith in the Nigerian project, pledging to contribute his quota to the country’s development.
However, Mr Adoke said he is weighing the option of suing the Nigerian government and individuals who contributed to his “ordeal.”
“While contemplating the next steps, I leave all my traducers to their conscience and the judgment of posterity.
“I am grateful to the Almighty Allah for divine mercies and blessings, my family for standing by me and enduring the public odium associated with trials of this nature, my friends for living up to the name and my lawyers for their forbearance and industry.”
Background
In November 2019, the International Police Organisation, INTERPOL, arrested Mr Adoke in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at the behest of the Nigerian government.
He would later arrive Nigeria to face the charges.
Mr Adoke was named in the $1.1 billion Malabu Oil scandal involving a settlement agreement that he oversaw as Nigeria’s attorney-general in 2011.
READ ALSO: The EFCC, my persecution and my vindication, By Mohammed Bello Adoke
Throughout his trial, he insisted that he did nothing wrong in the deal and embarked on a self-imposed exile in October 2015 over the matter.
Friday’s ruling by the Federal High Court in Abuja brings to an end Mr Adoke’s trial in connection with the controversial Malabu Oil scam.
The Malabu scandal involved the transfer of about $1.1 billion by Shell and ENI through the Nigerian government to accounts controlled by a former Nigerian petroleum minister, Dan Etete.
From accounts controlled by Mr Etete, about half the money ($520 million) went to accounts of companies controlled by Aliyu Abubakar, popularly known in Nigeria as the owner of AA Oil.
Anti-corruption investigators and activists suspect he fronted for top officials of the Goodluck Jonathan administration as well as officials of Shell and ENI.
The transaction was authorised in 2011 by Mr Jonathan through some of his cabinet ministers and the money was payment for OPL 245, one of Nigeria’s richest oil blocks.
The oil resources of the OPL 245 licence have remained undeveloped since the controversies began.
Eni initiated international arbitration proceedings against Nigeria in September, alleging the Nigerian government has breached its obligations by refusing to let the firm develop the licence, which has now expired this May.
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