One of the leading anti-corruption groups in the UK, The Corner House has asked the United Kingdom, (UK) to probe allegations by Nigerian former Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke that the Mutual Legal Assistance, (MLA) that aided his conviction in Milan, Italy on the Oil Processing License 245 scam was forged.
Adoke had petitioned the outgone Nigerian Inspector General of Police, (IG) Mohammed Adamu that the legal instrument deployed to aid his conviction in Italy over the OPL 245 scam was forged.
Mutual legal assistance is a treaty of bilateral collaboration between different countries for the purpose of collecting and exchanging information. Authorities in any country may demand for evidence located in another to aid criminal probe. Adoke in his petition to the IG had claimed that evidence provided by the UK through the MLA to Italy in response to a Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) request by the Milan Prosecutor was forged.
Leading global coalition against corruption including Human and Environmental Development Agenda, (HEDA), Re-Common, Water House and a host of others had provided technical assistance in exposing alleged corrupt practices involving Oil giants, Eni and Shell.
In a petition addressed to Dominic Raab MP Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the Corner House asked the UK to investigate Adoke’s allegations saying that it represents a challenge to the United Kingdom legal institution. A copy of the petition was also sent to President Mohamadu Buhari and his Vice, ‘Yemi Osibajo.
The Corner House cautioned the Nigerian police to recognise the international dimension the case has taken and not to allow individuals to subvert the institutions of justice in Nigeria. The group said the proper place for Adoke to have challenged the veracity of the email was in the courtroom in Milan where it was used as evidence against him and the oil giants.
Following Adoke’s petition, the Inspector General’s office summoned HEDA’s Chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju to a meeting in Abuja which Adoke’s lawyers did not attend.
Suraju has now been told that he must attend a meeting next week, requiring him to travel yet again to Abuja.
The Corner House said ‘We are concerned that this pattern may repeat itself. We recognise that it is entirely plausible that the email itself may not have been written or sent by Adoke. As his lawyers have stated it may have been sent on his behalf. However, we categorically deny that we forged the email. Indeed, the notion that a document furnished by the UK in response to an MLA is a forgery is both entirely fanciful and highly damaging to the UK’s reputation as a trusted party to the MLA process.’ The group said it was obtained through a government-to-government request from Italy to the United Kingdom.
‘The documentation is now part of the public record and it is clear from the correspondence that the email was obtained from JP Morgan by the UK Serious Fraud Office and transmitted directly to the Milan Prosecutor. Neither Mr Suraju nor Corner House nor Global Witness nor Re: Common was involved at any stage in the chain of custody’ The Corner House said.
The group said while it understands that the UK cannot (and should not) seek to intervene in Nigerian police investigations, however, ‘we believe it is of critical importance that the Foreign Office confirm that the MLA request from Italy and the UK’s response were lawful and were not open to forgery.’
The Corner House petition signed by its Co-Director, Nicholas Hildyard, said Adoke’s allegations engage the Foreign Office because someone in a foreign jurisdiction has questioned the authenticity of the UK’s MLA response.
The OPL scandal involves graft allegations against Shell and Eni acquisition of the oil field which prompted the Federal Government of Nigeria to sue JP Morgan Chase in the English High Court for damages relating to the bank’s handling of funds arising from the deal.
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