The United States Department of Justice on Wednesday, gave details of how a $6m (about N767.4m) bribe was allegedly given to officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation/the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
The bribe was in connection with the award of a $387m Eastern Gas Gathering System project.
The Department said that the scandal was not restricted to Nigeria.
It explained that, earlier this year, a US oil services company, Wilbros allegedly paid $10.5m to settle a securities-fraud class-action lawsuit accusing the firm of bribing government officials in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nigeria.
The claims of the Department of Justice were contained in some court documents that were obtained exclusively by The Punch on Wednesday.
The said documents, which were obtained on Wednesday by a US-based Nigerian news agency, Empowered Newswire, were filed before a Federal jury in the US.
In the papers, the US government indicted former Wilbros chief, Jason Edward Steph; two individuals acting in Nigeria as purported consultants to Wilbros; Nigeria-based employees of a major German engineering and construction company; and others.
The documents revealed that the aim of the conspiracy was to make corrupt payments to officials of the NNPC/NAPIMS, a senior official in government as well as officials of Shell Petroleum Development Company, to assist in retaining the EGGS business for Wilbros International Inc and its German partner.
According to USDJ, �Wilbros and German Construction Company formed a consortium, EGGS Consortium, and bid for EGGS coating work on EGGS Phase 1 that was approved for $387m in 2004.
�By 2004 and 2005, the consortium was, however, unable to get approval for EGGS phase 2.
�In and around late 2003 and 2004, defendant Steph, consultants 1 and 2, certain GCCB employees and others known to the Grand Jury, agreed to make a series of payments totaling in excess of $6m to and among others, officials of NNPC, NAPIMS, a senior official of the Federal Government of Nigeria as well as officials of SPDC, to assist in obtaining the EGGS project.�
The documents said that by 2004, some commitments were paid to the Nigerian officials.
Attempts by our correspondents to speak with the General Manager, Public Affairs, NNPC, Dr. Levi Ajonuma, were not fruitful as his telephone was switched off.
But a top official of the corporation challenged WII to identify the officials that were allegedly bribed to secure the gas contract in Nigeria.
The official, who spoke in confidence with our correspondents on the telephone on Wednesday, said that the corporation did not collect bribe from Wilbros, to approve the contract.
The official said, �Whoever said somebody took bribe from him should be able to mention the names of those he gave the bribe to, stating how much, where and when.�
He insisted that the idea of hiding the names of the culprits for security reasons was not good enough, as the reputation of the corporation was at stake.
He said that even if the culprits were highly placed officials of the corporation, they should be exposed.
�The International Police should come in here. Through the Interpol, it is possible to exchange security reports, instead of alleging bribery to faceless individuals,� he stated.
He argued that the NNPC/NAPIMS should not have been mentioned because the corporation could not have taken bribe as an institution.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Ahmadu Ali, said, �I have never heard of that name (Wilbros). I don�t know the company you are talking about. Let them be specific about the allegation.
�We did not run our party or campaign with any bribe money. There may be some people hiding somehwere and posing as PDP officials and collecting money.
�There are some people that I am fighting now. These people have, somehow, got my letterhead paper and signature and they are writing letters to people for favour.
�I don�t know them. If you know them, ask them to provide you with more information and we will react appropriately.�
Meanwhile, the new owners of Wilbros Nigeria Limited, have said that the current bribery scandal will not affect the company�s image in Nigeria.
Speaking with one of our correspondents on the telephone, the Chairman of the company, Mr. Henry Imasehka, said, �I don�t see how this will affect our image or operations in Nigeria.
�Our business partners know that we will not conduct ourselves in the same manner because the new owners are people of repute.�
He said that what was left of the EGGS contract had been concluded by the new owners, as the contract was on for over three years.
Steph, 37, a US citizen residing in Kazakhstan, was also charged with money laundering based on the international transfer of some of the bribe money.
Steph was a WII employee from 1998 to April 2005. From 2002 until April 2005, he served as general manager of WII�s on-shore operations in Nigeria, the Department of Justice said.
The Department said in exchange for the award of the EGGS project, the conspirators allegedly paid, promised to pay, and authorised payments to officials of NNPC, NAPIMS, a senior official in the executive branch of the Federal Government, and to political party, as well as to officials of the operator of the EGGS joint venture.
Most of the payments were allegedly laundered through the consultants, who typically received three per cent of Wilbros� contract revenue by wire transfer from Houston to a foreign bank, and transferred some or all of the funds to Nigerian officials.
The NNPC is responsible for developing Nigeria�s oil and gas wealth and regulating the industry.
It is the majority shareholder in certain joint ventures with multinational oil companies. The multinational oil companies often serve as the operators of the joint ventures.
Among other functions, NNPC and NAPIMS also approve the award of major oil and gas construction projects to private contractors such as Wilbros.