Malabu oil deal: Adoke asks Malami to withdraw ‘false depositions’

A former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has written to the incumbent, Abubakar Malami (SAN), seeking to correct alleged false depositions in a London court over the Malabu OPL 245.

The letter, dated March 3, 2022 and signed by Adoke’s counsel, Paul Erokoro (SAN), is titled, “Untrue and Unfair Accusation of Fraud /Corruption against Mohammed Adoke in the case of the Federal Republic of Nigeria versus JP Morgan Chase N.A.”

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Adoke cited an online publication on the Nigerian government’s deposition on the proceeding of February 24 at the Commercial Court in the United Kingdom, that he contacted JP Morgan through phone and email.

The depositions also averred that the 2011 resolution agreement on the disputed oil block brokered by Adoke “were patently not in the public interest of the Nigerian people, and those individuals in the Federal Government of Nigeria were seeking to effect the transfer to Malabu were acting in clear breach of their fiduciary duties to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Our client is concerned that you, the Attorney-General of Nigeria, has instructed a counsel in England to the above effect or has allowed those instructions to be given, or allowed those ‘facts’ to be presented in a court of law when you are fully aware that they are not true. Our client has, therefore, instructed us to remind you of the facts, most, if not all of which are already in the public domain,” the letter added.

Adoke stated that his report on the implementation of the agreement in 2011 was based on the federal government’s decision for settlement in the national interest and “to resolve the lingering dispute between Shell Ultra Deep Limited and Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, which had prevented Block 245 from being exploited for the benefit of Nigeria and avoid likely contingent liabilities in the sum of over $2 billion in the ICSID arbitral proceedings brought against the Federal Government of Nigeria by the SNUD.”