Nigerian government owes me an apology over OPL 245 saga - Adoke

Mohammed Bello Adoke, former attorney-general of thefederation (AGF), says he believes he deserves an apology from the Nigeriangovernment over the humiliation he went through in the OPL 245 saga. Adoke spoke in Abuja on Tuesday during a reading of his newbook, ‘OPL 245: The Inside Story of the $1.3bn Nigerian Oil Block’. OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu in 1998 by the regime of thelate Sani Abacha, but it became a subject of global corruption investigations,criminal prosecution and civil cases across the world after the Nigeriancompany sold its entire interest for $1.1 billion to Shell and Eni in 2011. The oil companies also paid $210 million as signature bonusto the federation. At the time, it was reported that Obasanjo revoked OPL 245’slicense primarily due to irregularities in its original allocation and opaqueshareholding linked to Dan Etete, the former petroleum minister who fronted theMalabu deal. In a 2017 interview, Obasanjo denied knowledge of the deal.But documents showed there were indeed agreements betweenMalabu and the government of Obasanjo. Adoke was one of many officials who were caught in the sagaafter the late former President Muhammadu Buhari filed criminal charges againsthim. However, the former attorney-general was discharged andacquitted in the related charges filed before two federal high courts in Abuja. Nigeria also lost all cases in Italy and the UK, while theUS and Dutch authorities ended investigations without brining any charges. ‘I DESERVE AN APOLOGY’Answering a question during his book reading, Adoke said theNigerian government ought to have apologised to him for putting him through“strain, stress, embarrassment and humiliation for nothing”. “After all the court cases vindicated me, I thought theNigerian government should have apologised to me, but I’ve moved on with mylife,” he said. He also revealed that high-profile individuals were afterthe proceeds of the oil block, resulting in a “dog-eat-dog” situation, which,according to him, contributed to the reason why the licence was revoked. “Some people in government wanted to acquire 60 percentstake in OPL 245. And so, because the owners did not want to relinquish 60percent was the real reason why OPL 245 was revoked,” he said. “And those people who came forward to even try to buy stakewere known associates of Obasanjo, Atiku... but I don’t want to ruffle anyfeathers.” Adoke said the former president’s actions were an error ofjudgement. “He didn’t act in the best interest of Nigeria,” the formerAGF said. Adoke took a swipe at the former president, suggesting thatObasanjo’s denial of approving the licence may be due to amnesia. “He was the one that signed off the resolution agreement, hewas the one that gave the approval, and so when he made that denial and saidAdoke was lying against him, the next day I published in several Nigeriannewspapers documents showing that he gave the approval,” Adoke said. “He had said that ‘If Adoke can show that I gave theapproval I would apologise to him’. I said he acted irresponsibly, in a mannerthat was not befitting of a statesman and exercised poor judgement because whenthat document came, he refused to apologise to Nigeria and kept quiet.”

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