The federal government has
accused former President Goodluck Jonathan and Diezani Alison-Madueke, his
former minister of petroleum resources, of accepting bribes for the
controversial OPL 245 deal.
These claims were included in
documents filed at a London court by lawyers representing the federal
government concerning payments made to acquire the licence in 2011.
In the court case filed against
Shell and Eni, the federal government said Jonathan and Alison-Madueke broke
the law for making a secret profit and sidelining the government from its true
share of the deal.
On April 9, 1998, the federal
military government awarded OPL 245 to Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, which was said
to be owned mainly by Mohammed Abacha, son of the Sani Abacha, and Etete, who was
the petroleum minister at the time.
On July 2, 2001, President
Olusegun Obasanjo revoked Malabu’s licence and assigned the oil block to Shell
— without a public bid. Malabu went to court, but 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 President Goodluck Jonathan came to power
in 2010, the controversy appeared to have been resolved with Shell and Eni
agreeing to buy the oil block from Malabu for $1.1 billion.
The oil companies also paid $210
million as signature bonus to the federal government of Nigeria.
However, the deal has been
enmeshed in more controversies and trials over allegations of bribery and shady
deals by officials of the Nigerian government and their foreign accomplices.
The OPL 245 is reported to be one
of the biggest untapped oil resources in Africa with reserves estimated at 9
billion barrels.
“Bribes were paid. The receipt of
those bribes and the participation in the scheme of said officials was in
breach of their fiduciary duties and Nigerian criminal law,” the court document
read.
Reuters reports that Jonathan’s
spokesman declined to comment, saying the former president was on duty as an
election observer in South Africa.
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