Former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, present his book, OPL 245: Inside Story of of the $1.3bn Nigerian Oil Block at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja on 10 July, starting by 10 am.
A legal practitioner and arbitrator, Adoke served as Nigeria’s Minister of Justice from April 2010 to May 2015. The President in that period, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan will serve as the event Chairman.
On 28 March 2024, Justice Abubakar Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court dismissed the charges of fraud, bribery and conspiracy filed against Adoke by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in connection with the OPL 245 cases the Nigerian government filed or joined in Italy, the United Kingdom and Nigeria
Ruling on the “no case” submission made by Adoke, Kutigi said the EFCC failed to prove its charges of fraud, bribery and money laundering and ruled that the defendant has no case to answer.
He discharged and acquitted the former minister on all counts.
The judge said the allegation of illegal tax waivers granted to Shell and Eni was not corroborated by the Federal Inland Revenue Service or any authority.
On the alleged N300 million bribe said to have been given to Adoke by Aliyu Abubakar, the court ruled that the EFCC did not provide the necessary evidence to prove its case.
The EFCC had earlier conceded that it did not have sufficient evidence to oppose the “no case” application by Adoke, who was listed as first defendant — although it insisted that Rasky Gbinigie had a case to answer over the alleged forgery of company documents to remove the name of Mohammed Abacha as a director of Malabu Oil & Gas Limited.
On 15 January 2020, EFCC had charged Adoke before the FCT High Court, Abuja. Joined in the suit were Aliyu Abubakar, Gbinije of Malabu Oil & Gas Limited, Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited, Shell Ultra Deep Nigeria Limited, and Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company Limited (SNEPCo).
Adoke was accused of collecting a gratification of N300 million from Abubakar over the OPL 245 resolution.
He was accused of conspiring with other defendants to “commit the offence of public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to cause injury or to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture”.
On 9 April 1998, the Federal Military Government awarded OPL 245 to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, which was said to be owned mainly by Mohammed Abacha, son of former military ruler, General Sani Abacha, and the then Petroleum Minister, Chief Dan Etete.
On 2 July 2001, President Olusegun Obasanjo revoked Malabu’s licence and assigned the oil block to Shell — without a public bid. Malabu went to court and ownership was reverted to it in 2006 after it reached an out-of-court settlement with the federal government.
Shell fought back and commenced arbitration against Nigeria, but when Jonathan came to power in 2010 and implemented the consent judgement returning the oil block to Malabu, the controversy appeared to have been resolved with Shell and Eni agreeing to buy the oil block from the Nigerian company for $1.1 billion.
The oil companies also paid $210 million as signature bonus to the federal government of Nigeria.
But activists launched an international campaign alleging that the OPL 245 deal was fraudulent and that the proceeds were used to bribe government officials.
When Muhammadu Buhari came to office in 2015 as President, his administration started a series of litigation against Royal Dutch Shell, Eni/Nigeria Agip Exploration (NAE), Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep (SNUD) Limited, and SNEPCO over the allegations.
