The planned
arraignment of Mohammed Adoke, a former Attorney General and Minister of
Justice, and Dan Etete, a former Minister of Petroleum, for invo
lvement in the
$1.1 billion Malabu oil scandal, could not go on, June 13, 2017 as they were
again absent in court.
The Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had on March 2, 2017 filed fresh charges
against them, along with two international oil giants – Shell Nigeria
Exploration Production Company, and Eni, as well as Aliyu Abubakar, Malabu Oil
& Gas Ltd, Rocky Top Resource Ltd, Imperial Union Ltd, Novel Properties
& Dev. Co. Ltd, Group Construction Ltd, Megatech Engineering Ltd.
They are alleged
to have defrauded the Nigerian government of the said sum in a fraudulent deal
involving the transfer of ownership of Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 245.
At the
resumed sitting, prosecuting counsel, Johnson Ojogbane, told Justice J.T. Tsoho
that “until now, we have not been able to secure attendance of most of the
defendants because they are outside jurisdiction".
Ojogbane had
at the April 3, 2017 sitting requested Justice Tsoho to issue an arrest warrant
for the defendants who were currently on the run, noting that the prosecution
was having difficulties serving Adoke with the charges as “he is outside the
jurisdiction of the court”.
Justice
Tsoho, however, declined, explaining that the court could only grant such a
request, if such “a person has been arraigned before a court and is attempting
to escape”.
While
seeking for an adjournment, Ojogbane stressed that, "The federal
government is doing everything within its power to bring them back to
Nigeria to
face their trial".
He added
that: "The EFCC wants to ensure a holistic approach to the case and we
want to ensure that those who are charged are tried together; all we need is
some time, if we are able to do this, then we’ll continue, otherwise we take a
major decision to see how we can proceed with those available for the trial
".
Their
arraignment has now been fixed for October 26, 2017.
Wilson
Uwujaren
Head, Media
& Publicity
13th June,
2017
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