$1.2bn Malabu Oil Deal: Court Grants Adoke, Others Bail

• Orders arrest of Dan Etete, duo

BY VICTOR OSOWOCHI, ABUJA – Frantic legal moves by former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN), finally yielded results on Thursday as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court granted him a N50 million bail.

Ruling on the bail application, the Court sitting in Gwagwalada, Abuja, upheld Adoke’s request but ordered him to produce a surety in like sum.

The trial judge, Justice Abubakar Kutigi also admitted Adoke’s co-defendants, Aliyu Abubakar and Rasky Gbinigie, to bail pending the determination of corruption allegations against them by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC)

However, while the Court granted Abubakar bail in the sum of N50 million, Gbinijie’s bail was gotten at N10 million with the judge insisting that the sureties must be responsible citizens and should depose to affidavits of means.

In addition, the Court maintained that all the sureties must be resident within its jurisdiction and must own verifiable landed properties worth the bail sum.

In a related development, Justice Kutigi has ordered the arrest of a former Minister of Petroleum, Dauzia Loyal Etete, popularly called Dan Etete, in connection with the Malabu Oil scam.

Also ordered to be arrested alongside Etete are Messrs Munamuna Seidougha, and Jospeph Amaran.

The arrest order followed an ex parte application by the EFCC, accusing the threesome of playing active parts in the alleged criminal allocation of the lucrative Oil Processing Licence 245 to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited in 1998.

According to the anti-graft Agency, the trio were reportedly owners of Malabu Oil and Gas Limited in which Dan Etete, as the then Minister of Petroleum under General Sani Abacha’s regime facilitated the fraudulent allocation of the oil block.

In its submission before the Court, EFCC claimed in the 42 counts of the alleged fraudulent Malabu Oil transactions recently filed against former AGF, Adoke (SAN), and six others, that Etete, Seidougha, and Amaran are currently on the run from justice.

Adoke and others, who were in Court on Thursday, pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail by Justice Kutigi