Sahara Reporters has on Sunday, revealed that former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, Russian President, Putin, former National Security Adviser, Aliyu Mohammed, House of Representatives member, Umar Bature, others, were allegedly involved in the Malabu oil scandal.
Recall, that Malabu Oil Company, owned by Dan Etete, a former Petroleum Resources Minister, was awarded OPL 245, and made a part-payment of $2 million for a facility estimated to hold nine billion barrels of crude oil.
It subsequently brought in Shell as technical partners. The most scandalous part of the deal was not sealed until 2011, during the administration of former President, Goodluck Jonathan.
The transaction suffered its first hitch in 2001, when the Obasanjo-led Federal Government revoked it.
The Obasanjo administration then invited some International Oil Companies, IOCs, to bid for the block. Shell participated and won the bid.
A sore Etete then petitioned the Federal House of Representatives, which conducted a public hearing and concluded that the revocation of the transaction and sale to Shell were in bad faith.
Documents exclusively obtained by Sahara Reporters from Italian prosecutors, showed that Italian company, Snamprogetti (SPA), was convicted by a Milan court with the same facts with which Jack Tesler, a Briton, was successfully prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice in 2011.
Tesler, who was arrested in the United Kingdom and extradited to the United States, was identified in the documents as a representative of a firm that received $130 million from TSKJ, an international consortium, which he paid as bribes to high-level Nigerian government officials, including Mr. Etete.
The former National Security Adviser was also mentioned in an email sent by John Copleston of Shell to Robinson Peter, also of Shell.
The email showed that he was working unofficially on behalf of Shell to get concessions from members of the National Assembly discussing the Petroleum Industry Bill. Copleston wrote that he saw Gusau on 28th July 2009, and gave assurances.
He also according to the mail, told Copleston that Etete was ready to deal, as the Federal Government was planning to take the oil field back from him.
In a response to Copleston’s mail, Colgate Guy of Shell said Russian company, US Rusal and Malabu met in London, with the meeting facilitated by Gusau. The former National Security Adviser the email said, had met Edmond Agaev in 2008.
Mr Agaev, a Russian Diplomat had worked in Nigeria and was said to be close to former President Obasanjo, whom he brought close to President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
The story about Agaev in the deal revolves around the fact that when he was Russian Ambassador in Colombia, President Obasanjo spent months as his guest, after he was released from prison in 1998.
Agaev reportedly facilitated several meetings between Putin and Obasanjo up till 2007.
During those meetings, Putin reportedly pressured Obasanjo to compensate Agaev for the hospitality given to him shortly after his release from prison in 1998.
Investigations equally showed that Mr. Tesler was connected to MegaTech Engineering, a firm to whose account the sum of $180million was transferred on 29th August 2011, from the First Account of Malabu (2018288005).
On receipt of the sum, MegaTech issued an invoice on 23rd August 2011, broadly describing the payment as “investments for the telecommunications project in Abuja”. The invoice contained woolly details on the use of the paid sum.
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