$1.1bn Malabu oil deal: 48 days after, Jonathan ignores Reps’ invitation

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Forty-eight days after he was invited to testify in the
investigations into the controversial sale of Oil Prospecting
Licence 245, former President Goodluck Jonathan has yet to reply
the House of Representatives.

Better known as $1.1bn Malabu Oil deal, an ad hoc committee of
the House has been investigating the alleged “diversion” of the
money, which was the Federal Government’s share of the deal.

The committee is chaired by a member of the All Progressives
Congress from Kwara State, Mr. Razak Atunwa.

The panel had invited Jonathan on July 5 after it said evidence
in the line of the investigations indicated that the former
President had issues to clarify.

But, as of Wednesday (yesterday), checks at the committee showed
that Jonathan had not responded to any enquiries by the
committee.

Findings revealed that though the committee had written him to
either appear or respond to questions by submitting documents,
Jonathan had yet to reply the panel.

Atunwa confirmed the development when Punch Not TheNigerialawyer
sought his comments on Wednesday.

He said, “Yes, we invited the former President already. The
committee wrote him a letter, but he has not responded. He has not
sent in any replies. We are still waiting for him.”

When asked what the committee would do next since Jonathan had
not replied after 48 days of the committee forwarding a letter to
him, Atunwa replied that a decision would be taken after September
19.

The National Assembly is on annual vacation till September
19.

“When we resume, we will review the situation and decide on the
next line of action,” he added.

In making the panel’s decision to invite Jonathan in July,
Atunwa had stated that certain information in the public domain had
made the need to hear from the former President necessary, before
the probe could be considered conclusive.

He explained that hearing from Jonathan was also an indication
that “thoroughness, natural justice and fair play” was applied to
the investigation.

Atunwa gave the grounds for inviting the former President, “Mr.
Jonathan was the President at the material time that (his cabinet)
ministers brokered the deal that led to the allegation of $1bn
diversion of funds.

“Mr. Jonathan’s name features in the proceedings initiated by
the Public Prosecutor of Milan in Italy. A United Kingdom court
judgment in relation to an application to return part of the money
being restrained, castigated the Jonathan administration as not
having acted in the best interest of Nigeria in relation to the
‘deal.’

“The Attorney General of the Federation at the material time,
Mohammed Bello-Adoke, has recently instituted proceedings in court
wherein he pleads that all his actions were as instructed by former
President Goodluck Jonathan.

“Accordingly, pursuant to the provisions of the (1999)
Constitution, the committee has decided to request that former
President Goodluck Jonathan give evidence as to his role in the
matter.”

When Atunwa was asked in July whether the invitation meant that
Jonathan would come personally before the committee or the
committee would meet him at a location chosen by the former
President, Atunwa replied that what was most important was to write
to him.

“There are parliamentary procedures, so we don’t jump the
gun.What we have said here is to ask for his response. When he
responds, that is when we go further.

“At this material point, we have invited him and that is where
the case will rest for now.” he added.

He spoke 48 days ago at the National Assembly in Abuja.

The House had first investigated the deal in the 7th Assembly
(2011-2015), but not satisfied with the outcome of the probe, the
current 8th House revisited it.

This second phase of the probe was launched in October 2016 with
the committee taking representations from Shell, Agip and the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

It also received the submissions of the current AGF, Mr.
Abubakar Malami, among others.

However, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources under the
Jonathan administration, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, and
Bello-Adoke, reportedly shunned the panel.

According to the House, OPL 245 occupies an area of 1,958 square
kilometres and holds up to “9.2 billion” barrels of crude oil.

Recalling how the deal started, the committee said Chief Dan
Etete, a former minister under the administration of the late Gen.
Sani Abacha, awarded the block to himself in 1998, using Malabu Oil
and Gas.

“He awarded it to himself for just $20m, out of which he paid
only $2m,” the committee stated.

It added that former President Olusegun Obasanjo revoked the
block, but it was later sold to Shell at $210m, a development,
which sparked off a series of legal tussles.

The committee recalled that while Malabu was still in court,
Bello-Adoke and Alison-Madueke were alleged to have “contrived a
series of complex agreements of a questionable nature.

“The summary of the agreement was that Shell and Nigeria Agip
Exploration paid $1.1bn to the Federal Government for the oil
block.”

However, instead of paying the money into the Federation
Account, the committee stated that Bello-Adoke and Alison-Madueke
“caused the money to be transferred to Malabu, which then spirited
the money to various foreign bank accounts.