Former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke, have been accused by the federal government for accepting bribes for the controversial OPL 245 deal.
This new information was made known in documents filed at a London court by lawyers representing the federal government on the case of payments made to acquire the licence back in 2011.
FG in the court case filed against Shell and Eni stated that Jonathan and Alison-Madueke broke the law when they made a secret profit and side-lined the government from its true share of the deal.
Recall the OPL 245 was awarded by the Federal military government to Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd on the 9th of April,1998. It was said to be owned mainly by Mohammed Abacha, son of the Sani Abacha, and Etete, who at the time were petroleum minister.
Obasanjo in 2001 revoked Malabu’s licence before assigning the oil block to Shell, without a public bid.
Malabu eventually did go to court, but ownership was reverted to it in 2006 after it reached an out-of-court settlement with the federal government.
According to the court document: “Bribes were paid. The receipt of those bribes and the participation in the scheme of said officials was in breach of their fiduciary duties and Nigerian criminal law”.
Reuters reports that Jonathan’s spokesman declined to comment, saying the former president was on duty as an election observer in South Africa.
