A former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke, has accused top officials of the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari of hunting him during the oil prospecting lease (OPL 245) case.
He described Mr Buhari, former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and a former EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, as people who sought his downfall.
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Mr Adoke, who was accused of corruption by local and foreign anti-corruption investigators and advocates during the scandal but later freed by the court, said this at Thursday’s public presentation of his memoir titled ‘OPL 245: Inside Story of the $1.3 billion Nigerian Oil Block’.
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“The politicisation of OPL 245 was caused by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. On assumption of office, Buhari chose to come after me. He scored a distinction in destroying my name,” Mr Adoke claimed
The former AGF added that he suffered reputation damage over the role he played in the implementation of the agreement on the OPL 245 case.
He accused investigators and prosecutors of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) of suppressing evidence and intimidating witnesses to secure conviction in the OPL 245 case.
He said the motivation behind writing the book was not to denigrate any individual or group, but to set the records straight and provide insights into the issues surrounding the $1.3 billion Nigerian Oil Bloc transaction.
Mr Adoke said while he has forgiven the individuals and organisations that played active roles in the saga that caused significant damage to his person, family and business, he remains unwavering in his belief and commitment to the Nigerian project and its success.
“Although, I was not a beneficiary of the OPL 245 Settlement Agreement of 2006, which preceded my appointment as Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, my traducers, state and non-state actors alike, ensured that I suffered immense public odium, loss of reputation, earnings and family life for the role I played in ensuring the implementation of an Agreement in 2011 notwithstanding that I was only carrying out the lawful directives of the President in the exercise of his executive powers under the Constitution,” he said.
At the public presentation of the book, former President Goodluck Jonathan, who chaired the event, said Mr Adoke was hunted globally during the oil prospecting lease (OPL) case.
Mr Jonathan who was represented by former Senate President, Pius Anyim, said shortly after his tenure ended in 2015, “the succeeding government launched what many people saw as a manhunt against key officers” of his administration.
“The essence of the author’s effort in documenting his memoir is not only to put the record straight, but to contribute to the cause of truth and justice as the foremost pillars of nation building,” he said.
He applauded the author’s wisdom, courage and doggedness in the face of intimidation, and blackmail, describing the public presentation of the book as a celebration of victory over deliberate persecution.
The former president cautioned politicians against recklessness and abuse of office, urging all public office holders to always commit to the virtues of justice, fairness and service to humanity.
In his speech, Vice President Kashim Shettima called for transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s public service, urging former and current public officials to summon the courage to document their life and stewardship while in service.
He noted that public servants live under perpetual scrutiny, as life itself is a litigation with no end and no final adjournment in the pursuit of justice.
Recalling the highly litigious (Oil Prospecting Licence 245) OPL 245 deal, VP Shettima said the book serves as an access card to the next phase of hearings in the court of public opinion, just as he emphasised that public service must be remembered, scrutinised, and preserved as part of national history.
“Each of us who has had the privilege of serving this country owes the people an account of our stewardship. Our stories are not ours alone. They belong to the nation. They belong to history,” the vice president stated.
Background story of OPL 245
OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil and Gas in 1998 by the Sani Abacha administration.
However, the block later became the focus of global corruption investigations, criminal prosecutions, and civil lawsuits after Malabu sold its entire stake to Shell and Eni for $1.1 billion in 2011.
Mr Adoke was named in the $1.1 billion Malabu Oil scandal involving a settlement agreement that he oversaw as Nigeria’s attorney-general in 2011.
Nigeria, the original owner of the OPL 245, was shortchanged in the complex web of transactions and ownership disputes that has dogged the oil asset since 1998 when it was first controversially awarded to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, according to prosecutors and activists.
The funds that were allegedly meant for Nigeria were used to bribe officials, prosecutors said. The EFCC accused Mr Adoke of benefitting fraudulently from the Malabu deal he helped to broker as the then AGF in 2011. The settlement agreement was meant to cede ownership of the OPL 245 to oil giants, Shell and Eni, after decades-long battle over it.
Mr Adoke, who was justice minister under former President Jonathan’s administration, was charged with bribery, among other sundry offences alongside a businessman, Aliyu Abubakar; Rasky Gbinigie; Malabu Oil and Gas Limited; Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited; Shell Nigeria Extra Deep Limited and Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company Limited over the Malabu oil scam. They were arraigned before the FCT High Court in Abuja in February 2020 on a 40-count amended charge.
The EFCC would later admit that it lacked evidence against Mr Adoke in the case, leading to the court’s decision to dismiss the charges last year. In the other case filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, EFCC accused him and Mr Abubakar of money laundering involving N300 million that was mentioned as proceeds of bribery in the FCT High Court case.
The court similarly discharged and acquitted Mr Adoke in the money laundering case.
Unethical conduct
On Thursday, Mr Adoke said his latest book has “revealed the damaging role of anti-corruption campaigners (local and international), especially when their motives are less than altruistic, laced with unethical conduct and desire to achieve nothing more than to destroy hard-earned reputations. Their use of unethical and illegal tactics, as was done in my case, to satisfy narrow interests and pre-determined outcomes must be deprecated.”
He noted that the OPL 245 litigation was “as lucrative as OPL 245 itself for lawyers and their allies” in the former President Buhari administration. He also described the litigation as “a monumental waste of resources”.
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Although he was discharged and acquitted in the case, Mr Adoke said “the scars remain”. He said this was due to his rise to “an esteemed position of being the chief law officer of the federation, only to be humiliated by a desperate, vicious, and ruthless government.”
Earlier in his keynote speech, Paul Erokoro said the case against Mr Adoke is the greatest miscarriage of justice in Nigeria. “It was such an anti-climax and the fact that the actual criminals are not prosecuted.”
Mr Adoke dedicated the book to those who stood by him when he was going through the darkest era of his life.
The book was reviewed by Arise TV anchor, Reuben Abati.
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