Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mallam Mohammed Bello Adoke, has accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of causing his eight year travails over the oil deal that is now generally called Malabugate.
Adoke also listed former President Muhammadu Buhari, ex-Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and former acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, of playing roles in his “unjust persecution.”
The Malabu oil deal scandal centres on the 2011 acquisition of OPL 245 (an oil block said to hold nine billion barrels of crude) by Royal Dutch Shell and Italy’s Eni for US $1.3 billion.
The deal soon sparked a string of legal disputes and international arbitrations, exposing how about $1.1 billion of the sum was allegedly paid by oil multinationals, Shell and ENI, through the Nigerian government to accounts controlled by a former Nigerian oil minister, Dan Etete.
From accounts controlled by Etete, about half the money ($520 million) went to the accounts of different companies.
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Adoke, in his newly released book entitled: “Inside story of the $1.3bn Nigerian Oil block”, details the ordeal he went through at the hands of government officials who believed he was wrong in advising the Jonathan Administration that the 2006 Settlement Agreement on the deal was binding on the Federal Government of Nigeria.
He was Nigeria’s attorney general and minister of justice from April 2010 to June 2015.
According to him, the politicisation of OPL 245 was caused by Obasanjo, “who woke up one morning and set OPL 245 on fire. He revoked the block without giving any reasons, now resulting in a series of litigations involving the NNPC, Malabu and Shell which stall the development of the asset.”
According to Adoke, one of his first assignments as Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice was to help “unpack the logjam” and he had advised that the 2006 Settlement Agreement was binding on the Federal Government of Nigeria.
He said in the resolution agreement that was arrived at in April 2011, Shell and Nigeria-Agip Exploration Limited was to pay $1.3 billion into an escrow account with J.P. Morgan in London, while Malabu would receive $1.09 billion as compensation as full and final settlement.
As the chief law officer of the Federation at the time, Adoke said he was convinced that he had given the government proper advice in the circumstances.
On May 29, 2015, after the Jonathan administration had left office and the Muhammadu Buhari administration had assumed power, Adoke said he began to receive messages from those who should know that he was going to be hounded by the new government.
He said he was in fact advised to leave town.
He said he heeded the advice and proceeded for further studies at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He said it was in the Netherlands that his travails began.
He said he was accused of taking a bribe of N300 million, $2.2 million at the time over the OPL 245 agreement and another N801 million and other cases of money laundering and abuse of office.
Adoke said even though he insisted on his innocence, he remained in exile from May 29, 2015 to December 19, 2019.
He said in between, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission filed cases against him in court and that his name was mentioned in legal disputes in Italy, the US, and the UK.
Adoke said that his apartment was even raided in the Netherlands and his houses in Nigeria were searched.
He added that a warrant of arrest was issued against him internationally, leading to his arrest and detention for 35 days by Interpol in Dubai, UAE and upon his return to Nigeria, he spent another 55 days in EFCC detention.
He said he was also interrogated over the P&ID matter, adding that it was only in April 2024 that he was fully cleared of all allegations of wrongdoing in Nigerian courts, resulting in his vindication.
Adoke said: “When President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015, he chose to come after me.
“He turned me to the poster boy of a scandal that never was. I was arrested and detained in the UAE for 35 days. I was arrested and detained for another 55 days in Nigeria by the EFCC.
“Anywhere my name is mentioned today it is Malabu and OPL 245 that usually come to mind, thanks to Buhari who harboured a collection of bitter feelings against me for reasons best known to him.”
Of Obasanjo, he said he “is clever by half and that he owes Nigerians an apology for blatantly lying. Obasanjo failed the ultimate leadership test in the matter of OPL 245. It was disingenuous of Obasanjo to have tried to distort historical facts.”
On President Buhari, he alleged that “Buhari, was driven by vengeance. Vengeance for the Abacha family. He believed I was unfair to the Abachas in the OPL 245 deal.”
He also listed other who seemed to have been part of the grand conspiracy against him to include Professor Yemi Oshibajo, Mr. Abubakar Malami, Adoke’s successor as AGF.
He claimed that all of them were involved in character assassination and the mudslinging agenda against him.
“I was discharged and acquitted, but the scars remain,” Adoke said as part of his closing remarks in the book.
But the former minister Adoke said he has forgiven all those who had a hand in his ordeal and persecution for eight years after leaving office as minister.
Adoke said at the book launch that former EFCC’s acting chairman, Magu, had come to apologise to him for the role he played in the conspiracy to unjustly tarnish his image for acts he never committed.
Adoke said: “And finally, Your Excellency, I’m grateful to the Almighty Allah for keeping me alive to witness this day…Permit me to say, Your Excellency, that I have forgiven all those who have hands in my ordeal.
“Before the presentation of this book, sir, I say boldly and clearly that I admire the courage of Ibrahim Mustapha Magu in coming forward to make up with me, to apologise to me, and to empathise with me for the role each and every one of them played in my travail. I have forgiven him.
“I see him as a friend, and I hope he will take steps to also make up with others that may have been victim of his activities in office.”