OPL245: Civil Society Groups Raise Alarm Over Plans To Subvert Justice

Some civil society organisations have raised the alarm over what it describes as an orchestrated plot to thwart corruption charges against oil giants associated with OPL 245 scam in Nigeria.

In a statement on Sunday signed by Antonio Tricario for Re-Common, Nicholas Hidyard for Cornerhouse, Simon Taylor for Global Witness and Olanrewaju Suraju for HEDA, the CSOs asked the Nigerian media to protect public interest by ensuring professional ethics is adhered to when reporting the scam associated with OPL245.

It accused a section of the media of being partisan, providing inaccurate and misleading commentary aimed at influencing the outcome of a trial before it has run its full course.

It reads in part, "The OPL 245 is one of Africa's richest oil fields handed over to an obscure company, Malabu Oil, that had only few days earlier registered in 1998 under the military regime of late Gen Sani Abacha.

"It later witnessed a string of dirty deals spanning 20 years. Italy’s Eni and Royal Dutch Shell currently face corruption charges in Italy in their various activities linked to the bid for the rich oil field.

"ThisDay’s article misleadingly focuses on a few minutes in one hearing nearly 18 months ago to allege that the prosecutor hid key facts relating to Mr Adoke’s mortgage. In fact, the prosecutor has been entirely candid. Evidence relating to mortgage repayments was included in the prosecutor’s file submitted to the court when the trial opened and additional evidence has been filed during the trial.

"They observed that most recently, on 29 October 2019, the prosecutor submitted extensive documentation received through a Mutual Legal Assistance request to Nigeria.

"It is our understanding that this included (inter alia) full details of money flows into and out of Mr Adoke’s account at Unity Bank, the internal Unity Bank documentation relating to the mortgage and property records relating to Plot no 3271 Cadastral Zone 06, Maitama, Abuja."

The group therefore criticised attempts to rubbish the progress achieved by the investigation launched by anti-graft agencies into the case.

Oil News AddThis : Original Author : SaharaReporters, New York Disable advertisements :

from All Content
via

Comments

Nigerian Academy Of Science Inducts First Female President

The Nigerian Academy of Science has inducted a professor of Parasitology/Epidemiology, Ekanem Ikpi Braide, as its 19th President on Thursday. In a statement issued by Oladoyin Odubanjo, the Executive Secretary of the Academy, Braide is the Academy’s first female President in 44 years of existence. It read, “Braide was a member of the national committee that achieved the laudable feat of guinea worm eradication in Nigeria. “She has a rich professional experience as a researcher and an administrator. In July 2010, Professor Braide was honoured by the President of Nigeria with the award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) for her contribution to disease control in Nigeria. “She was nominated by the Honourable Minister of Health to serve in the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19 Health Sector Response (MEACoC-HSR). “Professor Braide served as Vice-Chancellor, Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) Calabar, Nigeria (2004 to 2009) and as P...

NLNG Signs Letter Of Intent On Delayed Gas Expansion Project

The Nigerian Natural Liquefied Gas LTD has signed a letter of intent for the engineering, procurement and construction of its long held up Train Seven project. In a statement released by the company on Wednesday, it said that the $10bn project will be executed by a consortium of Italian firm Saipem, Japan’s Chiyoda and South Korea’s Daewoo. The statement reads, “The project will form part of the investment of over $10bn including the upstream scope of the LNG value chain, thereby boosting the much needed Foreign Direct Investment profile of Nigeria.” Managing Director of NLNG, Tony Atta, said in 2018 that the Final Investment Decision would be made in the fourth quarter of that year. This did not however, materialize. According to the release, the project will have a four to five-year execution time after the signing of the FID. The project is expected to add an extra 8 million tons per annum of gas to the 22 mtpa currently exported by the company. Oil News AddThis :...

Former Maritime Agency Boss, Buba Galadima, Accuses AMCON Of Witch-hunt After Property Takeover

A former Director-General of the Nigeria Maritime Agency, Buba Galadima, has accused the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria of witch-hunt after the agency took possession of his business and assets on Tuesday in Abuja. Galadima, an ardent critic of President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed that he did not borrow money or have unpaid debt with Unity Bank, which lodged a complaint against him and occasioned AMCON’s move on Tuesday. The properties taken over include House No. 15, Addis Ababa Crescent, Wuse Zone 4, Federal Capital Territory, Abuja and House No. 4, Bangui Street, Wuse 2, also in Abuja. Reacting to the situation, Galadima said, “This is an attempt to disgrace and break me down. This is injustice and an attempt to humiliate me. "But I am unbreakable and they can never silence me. They sacked me and over 50 people that sleep in the apartment. "We don’t know where to go. We will remain on the streets. We will remain on the streets until God provi...

EDUPEDIA247

Search This Blog