AITEO refutes corrupt link with Diezani

AITEO Eastern E&P Company Limited has raised the alarm that some persons are trying to bring up a case that is already conclusively determined by courts involving the company, its founder, Benedict Peters and former Nigerian oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The objective of the claims, according to the company, is to cause serious damage to its reputation.

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The allegation was made in a text read by Barrister Tochukwu Ohazuruike, who spoke on behalf of the company during a press briefing on Monday.

The Washington Post had released a report on AITEO E&P and its founder, Peters, regarding the case linking the company’s founder and the former Nigerian oil minister.

The matter has been in court for over four years with the verdict on some of the allegations still pending.

A consortium of lawyers for human rights and justice, civil society organisations and the Council of Ethnic Youth Leaders of Nigeria (CEYLN) yesterday also raised questions about The Washington Post report on Aiteo Group.

Ohazuruike, during a briefing yesterday in Abuja, claimed that the media house undertook the investigation to “achieve a predetermined objective.”

He said it is “obvious that the answers to these questions are not the object of the proposed article, because, till date in all the courts, Mr. Peters has continued to deny any and every wrongdoing and has been accordingly vindicated.

“Knowing that the answers to his question do not and will not lead to an indictment of Mr Peters, the obvious use of the so-called story being written by Mr Whoriskey is to cause serious damage to the image of Mr. Benedict Peters and AITEO using the ordinarily credible platform, The Washington Post.”

The matter began in 2016 when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission indicted Peters over a corruption allegation involving Alison-Madueke.

Ohazuruike insisted that the AITEO founder has “never received any favour by way of facilitation or otherwise from Diezani Alison- Madueke and there was, therefore, nothing for him to be grateful for to Mrs Alison-Madueke.”