OPL 245: EFCC GIVES UP ON ADOKE’S NO-CASE SUBMISSION, SAYING “WE HAVE NO EVIDENCE”

Babatunji Wusu –

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared that it lacks proof to back up its allegations of fraud, bribery, and conspiracy against Mohammed Bello Adoke, the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

Adoke was named as the first defendant in the accusations pertaining to the OPL 245 transaction of 2011, and the EFCC responded to his no-case submission by informing the FCT High Court that it would not contest the application.

The anti-graft body further declared that it would not oppose the other defendants’ no-case applications regarding certain of the charges, including Aliyu Abubakar, Rasky Gbinigie (the company secretary of Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd), Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd, Nigeria Agip Exploration Ltd, Shell Ultra Deep Nigeria Ltd, and Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company Ltd (SNEPCo).

The EFCC asserted that Gbinigie had a case to answer for the purported falsification of corporate records to obliterate Mohammed Abacha’s name from the list of directors at Malabu Oil & Gas.

Remember that the EFCC had accused Adoke in front of the FCT High Court in Abuja of receiving N300 million in payment from Abubakar about the OPL 245 resolution?

In order to “commit the offence of public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to cause injury or to save a person from punishment or property from forfeiture,” he was charged with planning to conspire with other defendants.

Furthermore, Adoke was charged with “knowingly disobeying direction of law” for allegedly “avoid[ing] tax charges against Shell Nigeria Ultra-Deep Limited, Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited, and Shell Nigeria Exploration Company Limited.”

“Having accepted a gratification of N300,000,000.00 (Three Hundred Million Naira) in the exercise of his official functions” was another charge brought against the former AGF.

Adoke refuted all of the accusations, arguing that the N300 million he received from Unity Bank Plc in 2012 was a mortgage, not bribes, as the EFCC had claimed.

According to him, the money was sent straight from the bank to the account of property developer Abubakar, who reimbursed Adoke in 2013 when the latter was unable to provide his equity share.

Subsequently, Abubakar sold the property to the Nigerian Central Bank (CBN).

In a different lawsuit against Adoke and Abubakar, the EFCC accused them of laundering $2 million, or roughly N300 million, at the federal high court in Abuja.
From the beginning, Adoke maintained that he was being politically victimized by former president Muhammadu Buhari on behalf of the Abacha family, who believed they had been duped in the OPL 245 deal.