Maxi-bribe Eni-Shell in Nigeria: it's up to the African witnesses

[by Antonio Tricarico] published on valori.it

For the trial of Eni and Shell for international corruption on the Opl245 deal, the new year began with video conferences with various witnesses in Nigeria. A significant effort for the Court of Milan and the authorities of the African country. Unfortunately, audio problems and the drip of objections raised about this method of examination by the defense immediately complicated the hearing. As if that wasn't enough, the interpreter taken from the court got involved and was replaced by the interpreters present in the courtroom for the Shell staff, who kindly "made them available".

Problems with connecting from Abuja

According to the Nigerian procedure, once the subpoena has been received by the Ministry of Justice in Abuja, the Attorney General mandates the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), a sort of politically appointed super-prosecution office (as happens in every common law country) to organize the hearings remotely, summoning the witnesses to the EFCC headquarters.

In the room in Abuja, in addition to the video-conferencing technicians, there was a prosecutor from the EFCC and not a judge as desired by the defense. Even before Christmas, the president of the Tremolada judging panel had cut it short and admitted that the Italian court cannot impose on another sovereign country a different criminal procedure in line with that of our country. However, yesterday the defenses attacked the fact that the Nigerian prosecutor in the letter of summons written to the witnesses did not sufficiently specify that the first option is for them to come to Milan, and only if prevented for clear reasons is a video conference organized from Abuja. The Nigerian counterpart of the Milan prosecutor's office immediately clarified that for this very purpose the witnesses are summoned in person a few days in advance to discuss the organizational issue.

The defense, and in particular the former minister Paola Severino who defends the current CEO of Eni, Claudio Descalzi, then rose up saying that this could be a way for the Nigerian government, which is a civil party in the Milan trial, to influence the witnesses. The court decided to proceed anyway, however.

The “I don't know” of the Nigerian supermanager

Thus we moved on to the examination of Bashir Adewuni, the manager of several Nigerian construction and real estate companies controlled by Dan Etete, former Nigerian Oil Minister, or by the powerful Alhaji Aliyu Abubakar, known to everyone in the African country as "Mr. Corruption", both accused in Milan. Abubakar is a fixer very close to various administrations that have followed one another in the African country, and, in particular, to President Jonathan (in 2011 at the time of the disputed corruption crime).

Adewuni strung together a boring and ridiculous series of "I don't know" (the same ones put forward by Eni's anti-corruption chief, Michele De Rosa, during the hearing last December), as if a manager signed invoices of up to 157 million dollars and did not know for which services or goods provided, did not know how many people work in the companies, what the bank accounts were and above all that he had no power of signature on the bank accounts. In one case he even denied the authenticity of his signature on an invoice. It became clear that the manager was simply a front man directed by Abubakar to sign documents from time to time with a salary of $300 a month or so. In fact, Abubakar received from Dan Etete, owner of Malabu Oil and Gas which illegally held the Opl245 license, a large part of the 800 million dollars transferred from London to Nigeria first to Malabu and then to these companies. And so Abubakar, according to the accusation, monetized hundreds of millions of dollars in cash through exchange offices which then ended up in the pockets of several politicians of the Jonathan administration.

For this reason, the second witness in the video conference was the manager of one of these "bureau de change", Ashambrack. Hassan Dantani Abubakar, a former banker at the First Bank of Nigeria where the money from the alleged bribe passed, explained in great detail all the payments and withdrawals made by individuals close to the A Group company and the other companies that would then pass the money to Abubakar and therefore to the politicians. In Nigeria, apartments and properties even for a certain amount are still bought in cash with bags and suitcases full of Naira. And it seems that Abubakar actually facilitated the purchase of a house with the Opl245 money for the benefit of the then Attorney General, Mohammed Adoke Bello.

The investigation into ghost companies

In the afternoon it was the turn of Idris Akimbajo, who came in person from Abuja for the occasion. Akimbajo is an investigative journalist for Premium Times, a reliable Nigerian newspaper born after the closure of Next, the first free and investigative media in the country, founded in 2006 by Dele Olojede, the first African journalist to win the Pulitzer Prize.

Akimbajo was summoned because in 2013 he had carried out specific research commissioned by Global Witness into Abubakar's companies. After acquiring the Chamber of Commerce documents from the Nigerian business register, he went to personally check the addresses where the companies had been registered. But in two cases the addresses did not exist, and in two others they corresponded to other companies or properties. In short, clear proof that the companies used by Abubakar in 2011 to move more than half a billion dollars were simply special purpose vehicles or phantom companies.

Akinbajo admitted that an aide close to President Jonathan revealed to him that Abubakar had been introduced to Jonathan by the governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, Jonathan's own political mentor. In short, Abubakar, who had been in business since the time of the Abacha dictatorship with Dan Etete, stepped forward as the fixer who would get the Opl245 money into the right pockets. To date, Abubakar is also on trial in Nigeria on charges of fraud and money laundering, together with Dan Etete and Adoke Bello, but not President Jonathan.

The entire month of January will be dedicated to Nigerian witnesses. And on the 23rd there will be an important hearing with the principal investigator of the EFCC.

Listen to the hearing on radical radio: