Malabu Oil scam: Italian Investigators hunt for more Nigerians

Although former President Goodluck Jonathan made spirited effort on Tuesday to clear his name from the Malabu $1.3 billion oil deal for which he was alleged to have personally benefited from a $520 million hush money, indications have emerged that Italian authorities are still digging deeper to unearth the level of involvement of other top Nigerian government officials and individuals that also had their fingers soiled in the scandal.
Some members of the 7th National Assembly were alleged to have also been compromised in the Malabu oil scam, additional reports have shown.
According to the Italian government prosecutors, the then Senator Ikechukwu Obiora and Honourable Umar Bature implicated in the oil scam were the arrowheads in the legislators’ involvement.
Although, the former president has absolved himself of any complicity in the scandal, the Italian prosecutors insisted that former Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Deziani Alison Madueke, the immediate past Attorney General of the Federation and Minister for Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke; erstwhile National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj, Gen Aliyu Gusau (rtd); Mr. Bayo Ojo, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, as well as former Petroleum Minister, Mr. Dan Etete, who is at the epicenter of the $1.3 billion Malabu oil scam, have questions to answer.
The indictment also named Mr. Zubelum Chukwuemeka Obi, a shareholder in Energy Venture Partners Ltd (EVP), as allegedly “assigned by the former Abacha-era Petroleum Minister, Mr. Dan Etete, to find a buyer for OPL 245” for which the Italian oil giant, ENI, the offshore parent company of Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) Ltd, and the Royal Dutch Shell, showed interest.
The indictment shows that Mr. Etete, and his Malabu Company mid-wifed the scam that involved the sale of the oil bloc named OPL 245, which he was alleged to have illicitly acquired in 1998 whilst still serving as Petroleum Minister.
According to Italian prosecutors, Mr. Etete had engaged Mr. Zubelum Chukwuemeka Obi to source for buyers of the oil bloc. Afterwards, the Italian oil giant, ENI, the parent company of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Ltd (NAOC) and Royal Dutch Shell, signed to acquire 100 per cent of the OPL 245 Oil block for a deal that totaled $1.3 billion.
However, Italian prosecutors are now alleging that much of the $1.3 billion meant for the outright purchase of the oil block was set aside for fraudulent payments to government officials as well as corporate executives working for ENI and Shell.
According to reports, Italian prosecutors are alleging that Mr. Obi agreed with Etete that the “so-called ‘excess price’ between the sum that ENI/NAE was undertaking to pay and the amount accepted by Etete, would be withheld by Obi, with the expectation that the in-built premium would be distributed among Mr. Obi; his sponsors, Di Nardo and Bisignani, ENI and Shell executives and “Nigerian government officials, and, in particular the former Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke.”
Acting on the strength of this agreement, Italian prosecutorial documents showed, Mr. Obi maintained direct relations with former Attorney General Adoke, as well as with “persons connected to him” including Roland Ewubare, Oghogo Akpata as well as with Mrs. Alison-Madueke and former NSA, Gen. Aliyu Gusau.
Also accused by the Italian prosecutorsis a Russian erstwhile intelligence operative, Ednan Tofik Ogly Agaev, who agreed to a fee of six percent for his work as intermediary between Etete and Shell. Agaev is accused of meeting Gen. Aliyu Gusau “on a number of occasions and having obtained information from him on the expectations of President Jonathan and other members of his government.”

The Italian court prosecutors specifically accused Etete of receiving $801.5 million from the Nigerian government under the FGN Resolution Agreement, and having transferred to Abubakar Aliyu, directly or through companies attributable to him, funds of approximately $520 million, intended to be paid to President Jonathan, members of the government and other Nigerian government officials, the report said.

Italian prosecutorial documents alleged that the Malabu deal involved an agreement that Dan Etete would use much of the funds from the sale of the oil block “for his own benefit and that of a large number of other beneficiaries to purchase property, aeroplanes, armoured cars, etc.”

In a statement by his spokesperson, Ikechuku Eze, in Abuja, however, the former president denied sending Abubakar Aliyu or any other person or persons to receive bribe on his behalf as has been alleged by some publications (not the Daily Times).
Eze noted in the statement that former President Jonathan was not accused, indicted or charged for corruptly collecting any monies as kickbacks or bribes from ENI by the Italian authorities or any other law enforcement body the world over.