A rights group, the Justice and Equity Forum (JEF), has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to consider new revelations in the ongoing OPL 245/Malabu trials in Milan, Italy.
It praised EFCC Acting Chairman Ibrahim Magu for the progress Nigeria has recorded in the anti-graft war under his watch, adding that he should be supported.
The Forum also commended the EFCC for donating a property forfeited by the late Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshall Alex Badeh, to the Voice of Nigeria (VON).
In a statement by its co-conveners Alhaji Idris Kainji and Comrade Adebowale Peters, the civil rights organisation said the revelations in the Malabu case should be considered with regards to the charge against former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN).
The group said: “We note that on June 27, Mr. Ednan Tofik ogly Agaev, a former Russian diplomat who is being tried over the scandal, told the Italian court that he was pressured under interrogation by the FBI to mention Adoke’s name as one of the recipients of the bribes reportedly paid to government officials in the deal.
“In fact, Agaev refused to adopt the FBI interview in court because, according to him, he did not mean for it to be used. He effectively confessed making a false accusation against Adoke. In a court of law, this will certainly kill the case except there is anything else to it.
“On July 17, in Milan, Italy, Mr. Vincenzo Armanna, the former ENI manager who is standing trial over the Malabu scandal told the court that Adoke warned ENI officials against discussing kickbacks and threatened them with arrest. This is the same Adoke that is being accused of collecting kickback from the deal. That doesn’t add up at all.
“We at the Justice and Equity Forum thereafter applied for and got a certified true copy of court papers in the case filed against Adoke by the EFCC at the Federal High Court in Abuja alleging money laundering. We went through the charges line by line and to our utmost surprise, nowhere did the EFCC mention that Adoke collected bribe.
“Yet what the EFCC continues to tell the public is that Adoke is on trial for collecting $2.2 million bribe from the Malabu deal. Nowhere in the court papers does EFCC make any reference to bribe or Malabu. This is very strange.”
The group said while it supports the EFCC in its Malabu investigations, charges should be based on verifiable facts, not on circumstantial and weak grounds.
“Adoke has said in several newspaper interviews that the powerful toes he stepped upon when he was in office are the ones now using the EFCC to fight him. Whether or not he stepped on toes, if he has done any wrong, he should not run away. He should come back home and face trial. That is our position.
“However, he seems justified to cry political vendetta in the Malabu case because the court case does not accuse him of collecting a bribe, yet that is not the impression being given to Nigerians.”
On forfeitures, the group recommended that all forfeited properties should be taken over by government agencies.
“That will save us the cost of paying rents every year, which by our calculations run into billions of naira.
“We, however, urge the EFCC to make sure due process is followed in dealing with forfeited properties. We are not sure the EFCC has the power to take a property belonging to the federation and hand it over to someone else.
“It is a commendable initiative that must be rooted on legal grounds. If EFCC does not have such powers, then the right thing must be done. If any law has to be amended, then is should be amended,” the Forum said.
