Mohammed Bello Adoke, former attorney-general of the federation (AGF), says the actions of former President Olusegun Obasanjo fuelled the OPL 245 controversy.
In his new book, ‘OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3bn
Nigerian Oil Block’, published by The Conrad Press Ltd in the UK, Adoke accused
the former president of failing the ultimate leadership test when it was time
to take responsibility for his actions.
Oil Prospecting Lease No 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil &
Gas Ltd in 1998 by the Sani Abacha regime but it was revoked by Obasanjo in
2001.
“Obasanjo woke up one morning and set OPL 245 on fire. There
is no other way to describe what he did on 2 July 2001. Exactly five weeks
after issuing OPL 245 to Malabu, he revoked the block without giving any
reasons. He did not allege any impropriety. It was reminiscent of the days of
military rule when impunity was the order of the day,” Adoke wrote.
“Unfortunately, Nigeria was now running a democracy and
there was going to be a legal challenge to his decision. The domino effect
would unfurl a chain of lawsuits, criminal trials and, ultimately, the
defamation of my name.
“From what I was told a decade later by those who should
know, Mr. Gabriel Volpi, an associate of Vice-President Atiku, and Otunba
Oyewole Fasawe, Obasanjo’s pal, had offered to acquire a majority stake of 60%
in Malabu and had negotiated with Chief Dan Etete, who acted as consultant to
Malabu. I was told the negotiations broke down sometime in the first half of
2001, because Etete, who for all intents and purposes was the beneficial owner
of Malabu despite calling himself a ‘consultant’, refused to cede majority
shareholding to them. Shortly after, OPL 245 was unceremoniously revoked.”
Malabu went to court after the Obasanjo administration
awarded the oil block to Shell in May 2002.
In August 2006, Babalakin & Co, lawyers to the federal
government, advised Bayo Ojo, then attorney-general, that the case be settled
out of court because of a Supreme Court judgment that had just been delivered
in a similar case in which the government lost.
Ojo then wrote to Edmund Daukoru, then Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources, asking for an out-of-court settlement.
Daukoru wrote to Obasanjo who thereafter gave the go-ahead
to return the oil block to Malabu in November 2006.
Malabu got the oil block back in 2010 and sold its entire
interest to Shell and Eni for $1.1 billion in 2011.
Obasanjo would later deny approving the settlement agreement
when Adoke was charged to court by the Muhammadu Buhari administration over
allegations of corruption in the deal, although Nigeria lost all the cases and
the former attorney-general was discharged and acquitted.
“Obasanjo failed the ultimate leadership test,” Adoke wrote
in the book, which was unveiled in Abuja.
“After revoking OPL 245 in 2001 for less-than-altruistic
reasons, he set the Nigerian oil and gas industry on the path of a crisis that
would eventually hamper the country’s production. If he had not been untidy in
the way he revoked the license, OPL 245 would by now have increased Nigeria’s
production significantly. He created the OPL 245 mess, worsened the risk of
investing in Nigeria, set the country on an avoidable course that further
tarnished its image abroad and, upon all, refused to take responsibility for
his actions. That is not leadership.”
‘OBASANJO TRIED TO
RE-WRITE HISTORY’
Adoke said when Buhari came after him over the OPL 245 deal,
he expected Obasanjo to counter the allegation that the settlement agreement of
2006 was illegal.
“In 2017, in the heat of the witch-hunt to which I was
subjected by the Buhari Administration, Obasanjo tried to rewrite history while
commenting on his 2006 Settlement Agreement. In an interview with Premium
Times, he described the award of the oil block to Malabu as the ‘height of
corruption’ which he could not have endorsed,” Adoke said.
Obasanjo had told Premium Times: “Adoke and others should
not drag me into a matter I know nothing about. If they have been asked to
answer questions over decisions they took while in office, they should do that
honourably. They should not bring Obasanjo into an Etete deal. I was not part
of any such deal. If I hold that view, I could not have approved a deal with
Dan Etete. What Etete did is the height of corruption. He appropriated the
asset to himself illegally, illegitimately and immorally. I can’t remember
giving approval that the block be given back to Etete. We gave it back to
Malabu? On what ground? Do you have any such evidence? Ask Bayo Ojo and Edmund
Daukoru what really happened because the stand I took at the time was
unassailable. If Daukoru has evidence that I approved that the block be given
back to Malabu or Etete, let him produce it. If it is proven that I indeed
approved the deal, I will be willing to apologise to Nigerians.”
Adoke said the Buhari administration “seized on this
dishonest denial” to strengthen its case “and sharpen its knives against me.”
“But Obasanjo was blatantly lying. The letter showing his
approval, in his handwriting, surfaced on the pages of newspapers a few days
after the publication of his ill-advised interview. Evidence shows that
Obasanjo approved the Settlement Agreement every step of the way. He was fully
aware of Etete’s involvement,” Adoke narrated.
“Rather than keep his word by holding up his hand and
apologizing to Nigerians when the proof went public, Obasanjo simply went quiet
in his usual self-righteous manner. If Obasanjo had come out to say, ‘Yes, I
approved the return of OPL 245 to Malabu’, it would have made a world of
difference. That is leadership. He failed himself.
“The irony of it all is that without Obasanjo’s Settlement
Agreement, the Jonathan Administration would not have been obliged to return
the oil block to Malabu. It was disingenuous of Obasanjo to have tried to
distort historical facts. There is still one question Obasanjo needs to answer:
who gave Shell the authority to de-risk OPL 245 in 2002? Shell paid US$1m out
of the US$210m Signature Bonus and deposited the balance in an Escrow Account.
That was a clear indication that Shell expected a legal hurdle. Otherwise, it
would have paid the entire sum at once, unencumbered.
“Obasanjo gave Shell the go-ahead to de-risk the investment.
This was the basis on which Shell had legal claims to OPL 245 and Nigeria had
to face the complications that followed. However, like the biblical Pontius
Pilate, Obasanjo hypocritically distanced himself from the problem and proved
to be incapable of standing by what is right.”
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