Obasanjo’s In-Law In $4m Fraud Scandal, Accused Of Forging Documents

Two foreigners — Mr Paul Piche, a Norwegian and Ms Charlene
Cross, a Briton, revealed how Mr John Abebe, the brother of the
late Stella Obasanjo, a former First Lady of Nigeria, allegedly
forged documents to perpetrate a four million dollars fraud.

Abebe is facing a four-count charge of forgery, fabricating
evidence, using fabricated evidence and attempt to pervert the
cause of justice at an Ikeja Special Offences Court in Lagos.

He, however, denied the charges which were proffered against him
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

During Tuesday’s proceedings which started at 9.23 am and ended
at 3.48 pm, Piche who was led on evidence by Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, the
lead prosecuting counsel for the EFCC, at the start of his
testimony, provided a background of his career.

Piche, describing himself as the Country Manager of Equinor,
Turkey revealed that he was the Managing Director of Statoil
Nigeria Ltd from 2016 to 2017.

“Equinor is an international oil and gas company it was formerly
known as Statoil, its currently engages in activities in 36
countries of the world.

“I was responsible for the overall activities of Statoil in
Nigeria, I know the defendant in this case and I know BP
Exploration Ltd.”

Explaining Statoil’s business dealings in Nigeria he said:”In
1991, Statoil Nigeria entered into a consultancy agreement with
Inducon Nigeria Ltd (Abebe’s company) that continued till 1997 when
the agreement was terminated.

“During the same period, specifically in 1993, Statoil entered
into a Net Profit Interest Agreement (NPIA) and in 1995, the
agreement ended.

“Statoil had further dealings with Inducon and in 2010, Inducon
took out claims against Statoil at the Federal High Court.

“When I became Managing Director of Statoil Nigeria, my
knowledge of Inducon was related to the ongoing court case.”

The Norwegian revealed to the court how the alleged forgery of
the NPIA by Abebe was unravelled by Statoil.

“In 2010, Dr Abebe tendered a copy of the amendment letter
between themselves (Inducon) and BP Exploration dated 1995.

“At that point, Statoil made enquiries from BP Exploration about
the original amendment letter from 1995, such amendment letter was
provided to Statoil from BP Exploration.

“When we made comparisons of the letter we received and the one
that was tendered at the Federal High Court by Inducon and Dr Abebe
we saw that there were a number of inconsistencies between the two
versions,” he said.

Piche who was presented with the original and the allegedly
forged NPIA revealed the discrepancies in the two documents.

“Annexure Two is the forged amendment letter tendered by Inducon
and Annexure Three is the genuine version of the amendment letter
that we received.

“In Annexure Three, the paragraph for the $4Million dollar
buyout for production of oil does not exist but it exist in
Annexure two.”

He said: “In Annexure Two the address of thw National
Westminster Bank which is in 2A Charing Cross Road is all on one
line where as if you look at Annexure Three, the same address is in
two lines.

“The postcode of the address of the of National Westminster is
WCTUH0PE with a Zero while on the Annexure Two the postcode is
WCTHUHOPE with the letter `O’ which is a wrong postcode.

“In Annexure Two at the parenthesis, instead of i.e, capital L
and a lower case e whereas in Annexure Three, in the parenthesis
you will see a lower case i and a lower case.”

Piche also pointed out to the court that the paragraphs of page
two of the forged document were not justified compared to the
original where all the paragraphs were justified.

He informed the court that following the discovery, Statoil
petitioned the EFCC and laid a complaint at the office of Vice
President Yemi Osinbajo.

“On Dec. 14, 2016 we laid a complaint at the State House office
of the Vice President because it was obvious to us that the
amendment letter has been forged.

“The fabrication of the letter at the Federal High Court to
pervert the course of justice and we had no option but to petition
the EFCC and ask the to investigate the matter.

“We sent copies of the letter to the Honourable Office of the
Vice President as well as the Honourable Office of the
Attorney-General of the Federation,” he said.

While being cross-examined by Mr E.D, Onyeke, a member of
Abebe’s defence team, Piche admitted to have no knowledge of
forensics.

“I have a B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Warwick and
a Masters degree in Economics from the London School of
Economics.

“I’m not a forensic document examiner, I cannot tell the type of
font used in the document,” he said.

He admitted to the court that his company did not take any legal
action on the alleged forgery until 2016 after judgments were given
at Federal High Court and Court of Appeal in favour of Inducon,
Abebe’s company against Statoil.

“I’m aware of the judgment against my company at the Court of
Appeal on June 5, 2012 and I’m aware of my company’s appeal at the
Supreme Court,” Piche said.

Testifying, Ms Cross, the second prosecution witness, described
herself as a legal practitioner and provided to the court her
knowledge of the business contract.

“I’m the in-house lawyer, Assistant General Manager Dispute
Resolution Projects and I’m a Solicitor working for BP Exploration
on London. I manage all BP dispute globally with the exception of
the U.S

“I know Inducon Ltd and Statoil Nigeria Ltd, I’m aware of rhe
fact that there was a relationship between Inducon Ltd from 1990 to
approximately 1992 onwards.

“I’m aware that there were two aspects to the relationship, the
first consisted of a consultancy agreement and the second consisted
of a NPIA which was signed on Nov. 12, 1993,” she said.

Cross told the court that the original NPIA signed by Inducon
and BP Exploration in 1993 was available because it was archived by
BP over the years.

“The original was contained in BP Archive System which is a very
organised system in place which consists of documents finally
executed and sent for safekeeping.

“The NPIA was sent to the BP Archiving System on Nov. 16, 1993
and it shows on the upper sheer that the Records Managing Unit
received this document for safekeeping.

“There is a barcode in the document which identifies the BP
Archive System,” she said.

Cross told the court that alleged $4Million buy out option could
not be inserted by BP into the NPIA.

“It makes no sense whatsoever for BP to have inserted such
language in the document, in 1993, the NPIA makes clear that the
buy-out option is in force as long as the 1993 NPIA is in
force.

“There is no reason for BP to have inserted this provision on
this letter of intent at this stage. BP’s provision is that it
never agreed to those wordings.

“The statement that it applied to a pre-production stage of the
buy-out is incorrect. I don’t know how the document was put
together but this is not a BP document.

“In the months prior to March 2018, BP was approached by the
EFCC to ascertain the authencity of some documents and thus
culminated in me writing a statement to the EFCC on March 26,” she
said.

Cross in her testimony, also corroborated the evidence of Piche
by describing details of the document that revealed the alleged
forgery.

On cross-examination by Onyeke, Cross admitted to not being
trained forensic document examination, she also revealed that she
made her statement to the EFCC while in London.

Earlier during the trial a member of Abebe’s defence team, Mr
Uche Nwokedi (SAN) via a Motion on Notice brought pursuant to
Section 36 of the 1999 constitution sought to strike out the charge
against Abebe.

Nwokedi said the allegations raised by the EFCC in the charges
were allegations which were previously raised in suits at the
Federal High Court and Court of Appeal.

Opposing the application, Oyedepo urged the court to strike out
the application because it lacked merit.

“There were two judgments at the Federal High Court and Court of
Appeal, however there were no pronouncements freeing the defendant
from the allegations before the court,” Oyedepo said.

In her ruling, Justice Mojisola Dada dismissed the application
of the defence, saying :”Nothing can be gleaned by ousting the
jurisdiction of this court, the application is hereby wanting and
is hereby dismissed.”

NAN reports that according to Oyedepo, Abebe committed the
offence on June 22, 2010 in Lagos.

“Abebe knowingly forged BP Exploration Nigeria Ltd’s letter
dated Nov. 30,1995 to Inducon (Nigeria) Ltd.

“He committed the forgery by inserting in page two of the said
letter the following words: “Also note that the ‘Buy-Out Option’
only applies to the pre-production stage of the NPIA. The $4million
buy-out is thus irrelevant from production of oil in any of our
fields.

“He purported same to have been issued by BP Exploration Nigeria
Limited,” the EFCC prosecutor said.

The prosecution claims that the defendant used the allegedly
forged letter as evidence in suit No. FHC/L/CS/224/2010 between
Abebe, Inducon Nigeria Ltd and Statoil Nigeria Ltd. at the Federal
High Court.

The evidence was admitted and marked exhibit BB in the suit.

According to the EFCC, the defendant through his actions
attempted to pervert the course of justice.

The offences violated Sections 120(1), 120(2), 126(2) of the
Criminal Code Law of 2003.

The case was adjourned till Oct. 24 for continuation of
trial.