Abubakar Malami,the Attorney-General of the Federation, has
written to President Muhammadu Buhari, urging him to back off on his
administration’s legal battles against the principal actors in the
controversial Malabu Oil deal. Malami, Adoke and Diezani.
The raging scandal
over the OPL 245 oil block began in 2011 when the Goodluck Jonathan
administration approved its purchase by Shell and Agip-Eni from Malabu Oil and
Gas Ltd., a firm with ties to Dan Etete, Nigeria’s petroleum minister from 1995
to 1998.
The Jonathan
administration officials who participated in the negotiation preceding the
controversial sale of the massive oil block included Mohammed Bello Adoke,
Attorney-General at the time; and Diezani Alison-Madueke, who was petroleum
minister. In his letter to Mr. Buhari, Mr. Malami said, following due
examination of the case files, he was able to determine that the EFCC has no
significant evidence to prove its allegations of sharp practices against
prominent players like Bello Adoke, Diezani Alison-Madueke and others.
Besides, Mr. Malami said, the Nigerian government risks
being portrayed before the international community and foreign investors as an
unserious country that could not be trusted to live up to its obligations to
international partners. “Clearly, potential investors will not have the
confidence to invest in Nigeria if the government of the country is perceived
as one which does not honour its commitments,”
Mr. Adoke said of the
OPL 245 oil deal. The September 27, 2017 letter advised the president to pursue
Nigeria’s possible investment in the disputed oil blocks rather than trying to
repossess it or prosecute former government officials or Shell or Agip-Eni
chiefs involved in the deal.
Source: Vanguard
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