Justice Abubakar Idris of the FCT High Court in Gwagwalada, yesterday fixed January 30 to rule in the bail application of the former attorney general and minister of justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke and two of his co-defendants involved the contentious $1.2 billion Malabu Oil deal.
They are facing a 42-count charge bordering on fraud.
The other defendants are Mr. Aliyu Abubakar, who was accused of offering N300 million gratification to Adoke in relation to the Malabu Oil deal, as well as a former company secretary and legal adviser of Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, Rasky Gbinigie.
The rest of the defendants alongside whom they were charged are corporate bodies including Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, Nigeria Agip Exploration Limited, Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep Limited, and Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company Limited.
The corporate bodies did not have to file any bail application.
Justice Idris had earlier on January 23, 2020, ordered the remand of the three defendants in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after they pleaded not guilty to the 42 counts preferred against them by the commission.
The judge heard the separate bail applications filed by the three of the seven defendants named as defendants in the charges, before fixing Thursday for a ruling.
Adoke was represented by Messrs. Mike Ozekhome and Paul Erokoro while the two others were represented by Messrs Wole Olanipekun and Mahmud Magaji at the hearing of the bail application.
Ozekhome urged the court to grant his client bail on self-recognition as a former law minister.
He told the court that Adoke returned to the country voluntarily to prove his innocence.
The other lawyers representing the two other defendants – Abubakar and Gbinigie, pleaded with the court to grant their clients bail in liberal terms.
However, counsel for the prosecution, Mr. Bala Sanga, opposed the bail applications filed by the three defendants.
Sanga faulted Ozekhome’s claim that Adoke returned to Nigeria voluntarily, adding that the ex-attorney general was arrested through the assistance of the International Police Organisation.
He added that Abubakar breached the terms of the administrative bail granted to him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The Malabu scam involving $1.1 billion involved the alleged fraudulent transfer of the highly lucrative Oil Prospecting Lease 245 to Malabu in 1998 and subsequently to Agip and Shell.
The EFCC alleged that a former minister of petroleum resources, Mr. Dan Etete, who served in the regime of the late military head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, was involved in the fraudulent transfer of the oil block to Malabu in 1998 and later emerged as one of the firm’s director.
He was said to have been at large.
The commission accused Adoke of playing a pivotal role and receiving N300 million bribe to facilitate a fraudulent deal between Malabu and Shell with Agip over the oil block.
Other charges involve alleged forgery of the corporate affairs commission documents concerning Malabu to implement a shady change of ownership and shares allotment structures of the firm.
With reports from NAN, Punch
