A former Nigerian attorney-general and Minister of Justice,
Bello Adoke, has given the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice, Abubakar Malami, seven days ultimatum to retract alleged defamatory
statements made against him.
Mr Adoke issued the ultimatum on Wednesday through his
lawyers led by Paul Erokoro, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
The alleged defamatory statements were made at the ongoing
hearing of the Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) arbitration case
in England.
Mr Adoke also asked Mr Malami to tender a public apology for
making statements which he knew to be untrue and defamatory against his person.
Mr Erokoro said Mr Malami’s statements were not true and
have negatively affected Mr Adoke’s image because the court proceedings were on
live television in Nigeria and on social media around the world.
In the statement, Mr Malami had accused Mr Adoke of having a
hand in the failed P&ID agreement, receiving kickback from the deal through
former petroleum minister, Dan Etete, and also single-handedly selecting a
legal team to represent Nigeria at the arbitration.
“Our client is astounded by your failure to inform the
English court that under Nigerian law, any person charged with or accused of a
crime MUST be presumed innocent until proven guilty,” the letter said.
“Rather, you pronounced our client guilty, even when you
were fully aware that his trial had not even commenced. The Attorney-General’s
oath of office includes an undertaking to protect and defend the Nigerian Constitution.
“The constitutional right to fair trial is severely breached
when the Attorney-General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria urges the court of
a foreign jurisdiction to regard and even pronounce a Nigerian guilty of an
offence without a trial. It was your unfortunate and wrongful pronouncement of
guilt on our client that emboldened the FRN’s counsel in England to tell the
whole world that our client is corrupt.
“This has done incalculable harm to our client’s name,
reputation and standing in society. Our client will suffer even more harm if
the English Court, misled by your evidence, makes an adverse finding against
our client. It is for this, among other reasons that the first duty of the
Attorney-General and indeed all counsel, is to the Court,” the letter read in
part.
Mr Adoke noted that he became Attorney-General of the
Federation on April 6, 2010, while the negotiations for the gas project had
been on from 2009, adding that he only became aware of the P&ID matter when
the Ministry of Petroleum Resources requested in 2013 that he appoint an
arbitrator as well as counsel.
The letter reads in part: “Our client finds it remarkable
that you found no fault in the appointment of the arbitrator but found fault
with the appointment of counsel, even though the two appointments followed the
same process. For this reason, our client is forced to conclude that your
vilification of his name is merely a case of giving the dog a bad name in order
to hang it.
“Our client asserts that even though he appointed Mr.
Shasore as counsel, Mr. Shasore’s legal fees were paid by the administration of
President Buhari, long after our client had left office, a fact well known to
you.
“It is also on record that our client was not involved in
any of the negotiations with P&ID for settlement, which all took place
under your watch. The initial proposal for settlement was delivered to
President Jonathan. The President referred the matter to our client for his
advice. Our client advised the President to leave the matter to the in-coming
administration, since the President’s tenure was ending in 8 days.
“You also conceal these facts from the court even though the
records have been in your office all along. If our client had been part of any
corrupt scheme with P&ID as you claimed in your evidence, surely our client
would have jumped at the chance to give P&ID a favourable settlement.”
Mr Adoke argued that the final award was issued in July 2015,
months after he had left office.
“Your evidence was therefore unfair and uncharitable to our
client because you are aware that all the attempts at settlement with P&ID
took place under your tenure as Attorney-General, a fact you freely admitted in
your witness statements,” he added.
Mr Adoke argued further that when the government requested
information from some banks in the United States Government on all bank
accounts owned by former President Goodluck Jonathan and others, it was
discovered that he has no foreign account.\ He, therefore, called on the
minister within the next seven days on receipt of his letter to take necessary
steps to correct the misleading and false statements against him.
“Our client demands that you retract the false evidence that
you gave to the English Court, regarding him and apologise for the harm done to
his name,” he said.
Mr Adoke also demanded that Mr Malami should instruct his
counsel in England to desist from repeating the allegations of corruption and
other defamatory imputations broadcast about him.
“Our client demands that you propose appropriate monetary
compensation for the violation of his constitutional rights and for the damage
to his reputation,” Mr. Erokoro added.
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