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EFCC insists on probing Adoke over Malabu oil deal

By Abosede Musari, Abuja
17 March 2016   |   12:26 am
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has said that it will go on with the investigations of former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke....
File Photo

File Photo

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has said that it will go on with the investigations of former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, insisting that the former minister who is currently in the Netherlands for postgraduate studies has not communicated with the agency.

Adoke, was reported in the media yesterday, to have said that he would report to the Commission in August after his graduation from the Netherlands. He had earlier written a long letter to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, insisting that his invitation by the anti-graft Commission was a witch-hunt. He had also dissociated himself from the Malabu deal.

A top source at the EFCC who spoke to The Guardian yesterday said that the former minister is still wanted to appear before the Commission to defend himself in the matter for which he has been invited. Asked about the use of the word “wanted’ when the former minister has not been officially declared wanted, the source said that “anyone that has been invited by the EFCC is on the wanted list of the Commission.”

When asked if the EFCC would accept Adoke’s August date and halt action until then, the source said that may not be acceptable as the former minister had not even communicated his position to the agency.“Has he communicated to the Commission? He wrote a letter to the Vice President, not to the Commission”, he said.

It would be recalled that the former minister, in a letter addressed to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, had defended his alleged role in the Malabu issue, stating that the deal predated his tenure in office and that he had only worked to get a favourable compensation of $180 million for Nigeria, an amount he said the country wouldn’t have been able to obtain going by the laws of the country at the time.

In the letter, Adoke had stated that the mention of his name in the issue was an attempt to bring him to disrepute. He said the reason he was brought into the matter was because he had refused to dance to the tune of certain individuals on the matter while he was in office.

He added that EFCC ‘s invitation to him was a calculated attempt to embarrass him, hence he decided not to show up at an earlier date in December 2015.
Adoke also stated that at the time EFCC invitation was extended to him, he was writing an examination in the Neitherlands.

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