BREAKING: Court Orders Arrest Of Ex-Minister Of Petroleum, Dan Etete
The Prosecutor, Bala Sanga, in an exparte application informed the court that the arrest of Mr. Etete is key to unearthing the truth about the Malabu oil scam.
Justice Idris Kutigi, while granting the request ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to arrest the former Minister and produce him before the court.
Etete was found guilty of money laundering by a French court in 2007. He was also found to have used illicit funds to buy a speedboat and a chateau.
In 2011, as a former Minister of Petroleum under military dictator General Sani Abacha, Dan Etete facilitated the transfer of payment of $1.1 billion to Malabu Oil and Gas. Malabu was set up in 1998 by Etete using a false identity so as to award himself a lucrative oil block, OPL 245, for which he paid only $2 million of the $20 million legally required by the state.
At the time of Goodluck Jonathan’s government, Etete helped facilitate the transfer of payment from Shell and Eni to Malabu Oil and Gas. The Economist reports that only $800 million out of the $1.1 billion meant for Malabu Oil and Gas was ever remitted by the Nigerian government.
The Nigerian Attorney General, Mohammed Bello Adoke, who signed the documents involved in facilitating the payments, denied the rest was shared by public officials. The transfer to a convicted felon, Etete, only came to public light when a Russian lawyer that claimed to have helped Malabu negotiate a deal with Jonathan’s government sued in New York for a $66 million unpaid commission.
Both Shell and Eni, as of September 2014, are under investigation for corruption by the UK and Italy authorities for the incidence.
In 2017, e-mails obtained by anti-corruption charities Global Witness and Finance Uncovered apparently revealed that Shell’s executives were negotiating directly with Etete for a year before the oil deal that corruptly enriched Etete was finalized.
