The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has stepped up investigations into the Halliburton bribe case.
To this end, the EFCC invited a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Damian Dodo, over his alleged role in the $26m bribery scandal.
A former Attorney-General and Minister
of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), and five other lawyers have also been
alleged to be involved in the fraud.
According to sources, other suspects in the case will be interrogated next week.
It was learnt that Dodo was questioned
by top operatives of the commission for over eight hours on Thursday
over his alleged involvement in the case.
Dodo is alleged to have received $4.5m
through his firm, DD Dodo and Co. from the multinationals involved in
the bribery scandal under the cover of legal fees.
He was also alleged to have withdrawn
over $2m in cash, for purposes that the EFCC described as unclear and in
flagrant violation of extant money laundering regulations.
However, Dodo denied the allegations levelled against him. He said he and the other lawyers were only paid for their services.
He told Fidelis Chidi blog that the
legal team even recovered over $200m from the multinationals involved
in the bribery scandal and should be commended for their noble act.
Dodo said, “We all worked together to
recover the huge sum of money from the Halliburton case for the Federal
Government. It was not a personal matter but a matter handled by five
top Nigerian lawyers.
“We have also made our report available to the Attorney-General of the Federation to show that we have nothing to hide.”
While foreigners who paid the bribes
have since been punished by their respective countries, the
beneficiaries from Nigeria have yet to be fished out and sanctioned.
But barely two weeks after the
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar
Malami, indicated that the major corruption cases in the country had
not been closed, the Federal Government has moved to unveil and punish
the suspects.
Malami had dismissed the notion that
President Muhammadu Buhari was afraid of taking up the Halliburton and
Siemens bribery cases because the key suspects were top military
leaders.
The AG had said that Buhari is not a man
who could be restrained by fear from doing what is right and in the
overall best interest of Nigerians that he has sworn to defend and
protect from harm’s way.
Malami said, “The idea of fear does not
come in at all as far as this President is concerned in the fight
against graft. Don’t forget that whatever Mr. President does is guided
by the rule of law and available evidence.
“It must be noted however that no
extraneous influence can influence our actions as we move to fight
corruption in all its ramifications.
“To be noted also is the clear fact that no criminal case can be closed once the facts are handy, regardless of who is involved.
The Halliburton case relates to an
alleged $182m contract involving a four-company joint venture to build a
liquefied natural gas plant on Bonny Island. Earlier in 2009, KBR, a
former subsidiary of Halliburton, agreed to pay $402m after admitting
that it bribed Nigerian officials, and Halliburton paid $177m to settle
allegations by the US Securities and Exchange Commission without
admitting any wrongdoing.
In mid-December 2010, the case was
settled when Nigeria agreed to drop the corruption charges against the
company’s former boss, Dick Cheney (and former US Vice-President); and
Halliburton in exchange for a $250m settlement.
However, no Nigerian official involved in the scandal has been jailed.
Speaking with our correspondent, the
Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption, Prof. Itse
Sagay (SAN), lamented that the case of Halliburton had taken too long.
Sagay said the probe lingered because Nigeria had incompetent attorneys-general that had succeeded in burying evidence.
The senior advocate said there was no
reason why the EFCC could not successfully prosecute the suspects
involved since other countries involved, such as the US and Germany, had
jailed their own citizens.
He said, “All those involved in the US
have been sanctioned and the company has had to pay a huge fine. We have
a list of those involved and there is nothing stopping us from charging
them to court.”
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