FG wavers on Halliburton scandal

But neither is the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, whose Executive Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, told the media Wednesday in Abuja that she has commenced investigation into the matter.

As of last Friday, officials from the Nigerian Embassy in Washington DC, United States, were still waiting for Mr. Aondoakaa’s famous request to be conveyed to the Department of Justice weeks after he claimed he had dispatched it.

Similarly, in Abuja, EFCC investigators, according to insiders, were just composing draft invitation letters to persons to be invited for interviews, although EFCC spokesman, Femi Babafemi, insisted that the agency had already spoken to some of the suspects whom he did not name.

“Only the Chairman has the name of those so far interviewed, and I think it is better to believe the Chairman,” Mr. Babafemi said.

However, our sources dispute the claim, and both the EFCC and the Attorney General’s office juggled information early last week to confuse the Nigerian public and give the impression they had the matter under control.

These developments are coming a week after we published, exclusively, names of the Halliburton bribe takers, which include three past heads of state.

Our source in Washington, DC, said the Attorney General, who was travelling in the US “for a matter totally unrelated to the Halliburton investigations” requested mid week before returning home that the embassy help pass the Mutual Legal Assistance request to the Department of Justice. “As I speak to you now the famous request is still unavailable,” the source revealed

However, Taye Akinyemi, the Chief Press Secretary to Mr. Aondoakaa, insisted that his boss was in the United States solely to solicit the country’s support in getting the names of Nigerians involved in the scandal.

Interestingly, our government under the watch of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the president, has engaged in a flurry of public relations activities apparently designed to buy time as it weighs its options in the matter.

On Monday, March 10, Nigerian newspapers went to town with stories that the federal government was set to prosecute Nigerians involved in the Halliburton bribe saga through a letter written to the United States government requesting disclosure of Nigerians whom Halliburton paid bribes in order to secure the liquefied natural gas contracts.

Documents purportedly released by the office of Nigeria’s Attorney General claimed that two letters were written on February 17 and March 27 to Eric Holder, United States Attorney General, requesting that Stanley Jackson, a former senior executive of Kellog, Brown and Root Inc, a Halliburton subsidiary, who had pleaded guilty to the crime in Houston, Texas, be allowed to give testimony to lawyers appointed by the Nigerian government.

Nigerian government hires lawyers

Subsequently, the government appointed Kayode Oladele, a U.S.-based Nigerian lawyer and Jack Blum, an American, to interrogate Jackson on the permission of the American government and get details of the bribe-for-contract saga.

During the week, Taye Akinyemi, an aide of Michael Aondoakaa, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, confirmed to us that his principal was in the United States to pursue the matter further.

“The AG [Attorney General] is in the U.S. to pursue the Nigerians involved; we should be patient,” said Akinyemi. “He is in the U.S. pursuing those involved in the scandal; let us wait till he comes back.”

But in an curious development, Kayode Oladele, the Nigerian lawyer hired by the government, was indeed in Nigeria during the week while Mr. Aondoakaa jetted across the Atlantic at the expense of taxpayers purportedly to pursue Nigerians involved in the bribery scandal.

Oladele confirmed that he has been briefed by the government but declined further comments on how far he has gone with the brief. “Yes, I’ve been hired by the Nigerian government,” he affirmed.

However, further investigations revealed that the related American agencies, the Department of Justice and the Security and Exchange Commission, have yet to receive the Nigerian government’s request. But the Department of Justice declined to comment on the matter saying investigations are still ongoing.

“The Department of Justice doesn’t comment on interactions with foreign law enforcement counterparts and since DOJ’s [Department of Justice’s] investigation of the KBR [Kellog, Brown and Root Inc.] matter is ongoing, there’s really nothing I can say,” writes Laura Sweeney, an official of the department in an e-mail to us.

Confronted with the fact that NEXT On Sunday has provided names of some Nigerians involved in the scandal, the Attorney General’s aide retorted, “If you’re so sure of your sources how come the AG [Attorney General] has travelled? We cannot rely on speculation and conjectures. Again, let us wait till he comes back.”

Aondoakaa is shilly-shallying

“I would say that the shilly-shallying of the Attorney General did not come as a surprise to me,” says Akin Oyebode, a professor of international law at the University of Lagos, when asked to comment on Mr. Aondoakaa’s efforts so far on the Halliburton saga.

“You have to look at what he has done in the past in respect of allegations of money laundering and corruption against certain Nigerians. He is known to have blocked the efforts of London Metropolitan Police in bringing enquiries into being in respect of some former governors. And he stopped short of frustrating the investigation on the basis of defending Nigeria’s sovereignty.”

Mr. Oyebode added that Mr. Aondoakaa has taken some interesting steps by briefing two lawyers to take up the matter but described the effort as “damage limitation” embarked upon “because Nigeria is definitely embarrassed.” and “to give the impression they are acting in good faith.”

The professor said he would not proceed the way Mr. Aondoakaa had done if he were the Attorney General. “I would not proceed the way he is proceeding because there is mutual legal treaty between Nigeria and the United States dating all the way back when Bola Ajibola was Attorney General [1985 – 1991]” he said. “He could have availed himself of the good offices of that instrument to get the requisite information from the Americans and the American side would have obliged.”

Mr. Oyebode also wondered if our government is serious with the request of the Attorney General on the matter. “Remember there was a time the Americans availed Nigerians of certain information and the matter just died a natural death,” he revealed. “I’m talking of previous instances of unwholesome practice which have been investigated in America that [the] Nigerian side did not follow up.

“I thought the first thing to do was to have gotten in contact with the Department of Justice of the United States establishing the interest of the Nigerian government in the matter and asking for information in order for Nigeria to take the matter up squarely if the government was to act in good faith.

“But if it is a government that has an interest in protecting the name and reputation of its patrons or party members; then of course they would not act as I said.”

Aondoakaa might be on vacation

“His actions in the past have not given many of us confidence,” says Nnimmo Bassey, architect and Executive Director of Friends of the Earth Nigeria/Environmental Rights Action, on the actions of the Attorney General in the matter. “It’s possible that the AG is on vacation in the United States,” he suggested.

“Not in this age. That would have been necessary in the last century, but not in 2009,” says Abdulrahman Ahmad, Chief Missionary Officer of Ansarudeen Society of Nigeria, an Islamic group and coordinator, Movement Against Corruption (MAC), on Aondoakaa’s trip to the United States.

“There are anti-graft agencies; we have the ICPC, the EFCC, the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigerian Police. These are agencies that should swing into action. It is not, to the best of our understanding, in the place of the Attorney General of the federation to be running after documents. There are agencies that could do that because it is their profession; it’s their constitutional responsibility.”

This government will do nothing

In an angry response, the Action Congress (AC), speaking through its spokesman, Lai Mohammed, accused the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of “buying th 2003 election with proceeds from the Halliburton bribe” and called for “urgent and serious investigations and prosecutions.”

Politicians across the divide are of the opinion that the federal government seems uninterested in taking action on those indicted.

“It is not surprising that the government is yet to act,” says Usman Bugaje, National Secretary of Action Congress. “Because Obasanjo is involved, Yar’Adua will not do anything. Remember what happened to the power probe report. This is more or less an Obasanjo government and it will be a surprise if he is brought to book over this monumental corruption in which he was involved.”

This view is also shared by Bamidele Aturu, a lawyer. “The current government is not serious about corruption,” he said. “It’s always looking for excuse to do nothing, a cowardly government, and most of its representatives are people accused of corruption so it cannot act without losing political support.”

Mr. Aturu added that the government is “actually re-branding corruption, which in itself is an attitude of do-nothing.”

To Ayo Adebanjo, leader of the Democratic People’s Alliance, “Those who have been named should be prosecuted without delay, except they are punished openly and severely, there will be no deterrent for corruption in this country.”

“They should all be brought to book, especially Obasanjo who has been harassing everybody, describing them as corrupt when he is neck deep in corruption himself.”

On his part, Osita Okechukwu, the National Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, would want Farida Waziri, the EFCC Chairman, to prosecute those involved.

“The report in NEXT has provided her with all the information she needs to interrogate and prosecute the suspects. She should move in because, as far as we are concerned, the culprits are known,” Mr. Okechukwu said.

Not surprisingly, mum is the word from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“PDP has no opinion on this matter. We have been preoccupied with our election preparations,” says Rufai Alkali, its Secretary.

Dimeji Bankole, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, also declined to comment. “The Speaker is unwilling to speak until the matter is brought to the floor. This is a controversial matter,” said Kayode Odunaro, his Special Assistant on Communication.

Nigerian government’s options

Mr. Oyebode has challenged the Attorney General to “recognise the locus of the act and act accordingly by invoking existing international instruments” in order to “get his hands on the evidence,” because he “can’t [prosecute] without evidence.” He said that if the evidence is outside one’s jurisdiction, in a different location, “Then you get authorities there to sequester the evidence and transmit [it] to you so that you can now activate your investigative machinery in order to catch the local accomplices of the scandal.”

He added that the government can still do that if it wants to “as evidence of good faith and commitment to [the] anti-corruption crusade,” adding, “That is what is expected of [a] serious-minded government that wants to be taken seriously by the rest of the international community; not the flip-flop and shilly-shallying method.”

Gamaliel Onosode, past President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, advocates for further investigation. “If a prima facie case is established against those mentioned, they must be charged to court and the law must take its due course,” he said.

Mr. Bassey also blamed the inertia of the government for continually “rubbishing our reputation as a nation,” and our standing in the committee of nations. “If the government is really interested in fighting corruption, this is where they should start,” he stressed.

However, Mr. Ahmad said there is “a lot of hope” if Nigerians are vigilant and “can put pressure to bear on the government and the anti-graft agencies.”

To Mr. Oyebode, Nigerians have the facilities to do it. “It is the political will I think is wanting. Let Umaru Yar’Adua prove an exception to the rule that it’s no longer business as usual. If he doesn’t deliver, then of course he will just be one of those misbegotten rulers that have passed through Nigeria,” he said.