Dan Etete, a former Minister of Petroleum caught at the heart of the $1.1 billion Malabu Oil scandal, has accused the Nigerian government of leaving out Shell and Agip in the criminal charges it filed last week.

Mr. Etete said the government erred in pursuing the case against him and others while conspicuously sparing Shell, Total and Agip/Eni even though the three firms “were parties to all the agreements” reached in the OPL 245 oil deal, THISDAY reported on Wednesday, citing a text message exchange it had with Mr. Etete.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission filed nine-count of money laundering and fraud against Mr. Etete, a former Attorney-General Bello Adoke; a controversial businessman, Abubakar Aliyu; and some local firms.

Mr. Etete, whom authorities believe is still at large, is also being pursued by Italian authorities for his role in the controversial deal.

But the ex-minister denied the allegations against him and suggested that he was being unfairly targeted by the Nigerian government.

“The Attorney General of the Federation negotiated this settlement himself and all stakeholders took part and were properly represented.

“The federal government collected USD210 million signature bonus instead of the original signature bonus of USD20 million like Danjuma’s Block 246 which was awarded by me at the same time as OPL245,” THISDAY quoted Mr. Etete as saying.

Mr. Etete said Mr. Adoke acted in his capacity as an official of the Nigerian government in the OPL245 deal and that the government was effectively charging itself to court when it filed charges against him.

“Just a simple question: Can the government litigate (against) itself?” Mr. Etete said.

The $1.1 billion 2011 deal

After several political and judicial intrigues that ensured OPL 245 changed hands several times between Malabu, Shell, and the Nigerian government, Goodluck Jonathan emerged Nigeria’s president in 2010. On the prompting of his attorney general, Mohammed Adoke, one of Mr. Jonathan’s first directive upon assuming office was that the oil block be given to Malabu.

Persons close to Mr. Jonathan told PREMIUM TIMES the former president took the decision because of his closeness to Mr. Etete who had helped him during his tenure as petroleum minister and because of the perception among persons from the oil producing Niger Delta that OPL 245 was one of the few oil blocks awarded to someone from the region.

By 2010, Mr. Etete had schemed out other owners of Malabu including by fraudulently altering Corporate Affairs Corporation, CAC, documents, investigations revealed.

The CAC recently said its official in charge of the Malabu documents was “brutally murdered”.

Despite Mr. Jonathan’s directive that Malabu be given OPL 245, the company really did not exist and had no staff or technical competence to manage the block.  Based on advice from desperate businessmen including an Israeli, Ednan Agaev, Mr. Etete decided to cash in on the block. Through various middlemen, the former minister approached oil giants, Shell and ENI, to buy the block. Knowing Mr. Etete’s history including the fact that he had been convicted in France for money laundering, the oil firms would not do a direct deal.

For the transaction to continue, a legally recognised mediator would have to be found.

That mediator turned out to be the Nigerian government, represented by Mr. Adoke.

The agreements that were sealed led to Shell and ENI paying the $1.1 billion into a Nigerian government account in JP Morgan Chase in London. The money was to then be transferred to Malabu accounts controlled by Mr. Etete.

Although Shell and ENI have repeatedly claimed they did not know the money was going to end up with Malabu, investigations in Nigeria and Italy as well as leaked documents revealed that claim to be false. Mr. Adoke himself would later admit that he, on behalf of the federal government, only acted as a mediator for two willing parties – Malabu and the oil majors. Mr. Adoke was, however, aware of the various fraudulent manipulations of Malabu by Mr. Etete when he authorised the transaction, multiple sources have told PREMIUM TIMES.

THE TRANSFERS TO FRAUDULENT FIRMS

To ensure no one stopped the shady transfer of the $1.1 billion to Mr. Etete, the money had to be quickly transferred. More so, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was set to assume office as Nigeria’s Finance Minister and the officials involved were not sure she would play ball.

On August 16, 2011, a day before Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala was to assume office, Mr. Adoke and the then Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, authorised the transfer of the money to Malabu accounts in Nigeria controlled by Mr. Adoke. However, all the $1.1 billion could not be transferred. Emeka Obi, a man who claimed he helped broker the deal between Malabu and the oil majors filed a suit in the UK, that ensured $215 million was frozen of the money. The remaining $801 million was subsequently transferred to Mr. Etete: $400 million was transferred to a Bank PHB account while $401 million was transferred to a First Bank account.

Immediately Mr. Etete received the money, curious transfers began. PREMIUM TIMES investigations, now confirmed by the EFCC, reveal that shady companies linked to Abubakar Aliyu received about $479 million dollars from Mr. Etete. Our investigations later showed that most of the companies were non-existent and used fake addresses in their registration documents.

The companies – Rocky Top Resource Ltd, Imperial Union Ltd, Novel Properties & Dev. Co. Ltd, A-Group Construction Ltd, and Megatech Engineering Ltd – were all charged in the suit filed by the EFCC.

While Mr. Etete later admitted that only $250 million of the money paid into his account was his, Mr. Aliyu is believed to have acted as a front for officials of the Goodluck Jonathan administration including Mr. Adoke.

THE CHARGES

The nine-count charge filed by the EFCC on Tuesday has nine defendants, Messrs. Etete, Abubakar and Adoke; Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd; and Mr. Aliyu’s five companies.

The counts against Mr. Etete were that he fraudulently received a total of $801 million from the Nigerian government. The two against Mr. Adoke were that he aided the transfer of the money to Mr. Etete and conspired with him to “commit money laundering offences…”

Mr. Aliyu was accused of receiving a total of $478.6 million fraudulently from the transaction.

The suit is expected to be assigned to a judge with trial commencing early next year.

It is not clear if all the accused will appear for trial though. Mr. Adoke is currently in the Netherlands while Mr. Etete, who was granted administrative bail by the EFCC is suspected to have fled Nigeria.

Also, the suit filed on Tuesday is expected to be the first of a series to be filed in relation to the juicy OPL 245, with Shell and Eni expected to also be charged.