I only carried out presidential order – Adoke | Nairalaw

Later on Wednesday, an online news medium, TheCable, quoted
Adoke as saying he would fight the order in court because he had
already been cleared of any wrongdoing by a “competent court of
law.”

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.