OPL 245: IGP Monitoring Unit absolves Bello Adoke of e-mail complicity

A report by IGP Monitoring Unit has absolved former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, of complicity that followed the use of an  email address of a company owned by Aliyu Abubakar, who was on trial in Italy for the OPL 245 saga.

A three-page  certified  true copies of  letter addressed to the former Minister  and signed by the Head, IGP Monitoring Unit at the Force Headquarters, ACP Ibrahi Musa, said that after an investigation carried out by the Special  Inspector-General of Police (IGP)  team, it was discovered that there was no clear evidence that could be traced to the involvement of  the former Minister in any part of the series of leads that were followed by the team to unravel his involvement in the use of the said e-mail to make the puported communication over the oil deal.

The report stated: “A thorough investigation was carried out and in the course of investigation, it was evident that Mr Olarenwaju Suraju of Human and Environmental Development Agenda, an unregistered organisation, without verifying the authenticity of the purported telephone interview and email proceeded to use the social media handle of @HedaAgenda on Twitter and @HedaResourceCentre on Facebook to disseminate same.

“And when invited by the Police to substantiate his claims, he feigned sickness, jumped bail and resorted to issuing press statements maligning the Police, writing frivolous counter petitions and filing civil suits in Court against the IGP Monitoring Unit, Force Headquarters, Abuja and the Police, aimed to undermine the investigation and to evade the course of justice.

“That the claims made by Mr Olarewaju Suraju that, his foreign partners, national and international media agencies are the authors of the information he shared is misleading as he was the one issuing the press statements that were published by these media agencies.

“That the totality of the conduct of Olarewaju Suraju is a calculated attempt to resort to media trial and to falsify relationship between Mohamed Bello Adoke, SAN, and Aliyu Abubakar while their cases are still ongoing in Court, thereby misleading the public, of which elements of a prima facie case of cyber-stalking, giving false information to misled public officer, injurious falsehood and criminal defamation with intent to incite exist.”

Earlier in the year, a group, HEDA, led by Olanrewaju, through a series of press statements pointed the finger at Adoke, accusing him of involvement  in a  communication with JP Morgan in June 2011 over OPL 245 transaction between Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd, Shell and Eni.

The group accused Adoke of using the e-mail address of a company owned by Aliyu Abubakar, who was on trial in Italy over the OPL 245 affair, despite the fact that the former Minster had never been  involved in any legal defence in Italy for the same oil deal.

In refuting the accusation, the former Minister said through different media channels that he was never involved with any media interview with  an Italian journalist in 2017 where he was said to have acknowledged that the OPL 245 deal was fraudulent.

The former Justice Minister disowned the e-mail, while he claimed that he was no longer minister as of the date it was sent and had no reason to use another person’s e-mail address to transact any business either as a serving minister or a private citizen.