NIGERIA is exploring diplomatic and legal channels to get the list of its officials indicted in the $180million Halliburton bribery scandal.
Security agencies are handling the matter. Besides, the government has raised two teams in Nigeria and the United States to collate the effect of the damage done to the country. After they are done, a legal battle will be launched.
President Umaru Yar’Adua is said to be bent on bringing all the Nigerian suspects to justice, “no matter whose ox is gored”.
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation Mike Aondoakaa made these disclosures in an exclusive interview with The Nation in Abuja last night.
He has just returned from Brtain and the United States on the Halliburton case.
He said: “You see, this is a matter of national concern to the President; it is a matter of concern to everybody. People are being prosecuted and fined for violating not only the US law but for violating the laws of Nigeria and the government of Nigeria must be concerned.
“The bribe allegation of $180million was offered to Nigerians to influence a contract in Nigeria, that is the LNG project that you are aware of. The government cannot just sit idle and watch this without taking action.
“The President gave me full backing to take action. First we have to get the names of those people involved. The greatest difficulty has been that those names have always been under seal.
“We have had a situation whereby somebody admitted guilt but he did not go further to say or admit that ‘I gave this person or I gave that person this amount’. Yet he admitted that he gave bribe to Nigerian officials.
“So, first is to try to find a way that the names of the Nigerian officials will be given to us and then we will take action. There is no time limit to prosecute; it could take us one year but we know that one day, we will get those names.
“We will go to any length, we will get court records: we will use diplomatic channels, and any other channel that we can get lawful evidence to prosecute this matter.
Aondoakaa spoke also on the Wilbros case, which he described as “not closed”. The Siemens case is not closed, the minister said, adding: “In fact, I have the approval of Mr. President to proceed and investigate these matters.”
Aondoakaa said he had raised two teams in Nigeria and in the US to compile the effect of local damage done to Nigeria by Halliburton and get the list of officials involved.
He said: “I have set up a very strong local team, headed by M. D. Belgore (SAN) with other SANs, to collate how that thing affected Nigerian society. The international team would take care of the civil matter on Haliburton.”
On attempt by the Federal Government to sue Halliburton for compensation, the AGF insisted that it was not an attempt to cover up.
He added: “So, we must have concrete evidence but I can tell you that the President is not protecting anybody; the president will not protect anybody, the President will make sure that anybody involved in this matter is dealt with. He has already given me the directives in writing when I wrote to him on Wilbros and Siemens.
“No; no cover-up. This is one funny country that people don’t wait to hear the other side. There are two things in law; a civil remedy does not preclude from criminal prosecution. You could see that O.J. Simpson was discharged criminally but yet the civil claim succeeded and damages were given. That is what we want to do. We are claiming exemplary damages.
“While our security agencies are making efforts to get the names of these officials in Nigeria and charge them to court, nothing stops us to sue in Houston. The lawyer, who offered the bribe, Kesler, is going to face trial in Houston.”
The Attorney-General said he had received legal advice from a law firm, Edgar (former Kendall Freeman) that a government could take a civil action against such multinational companies and claim damages.
“If government is making efforts to combat corruption, these companies that are well-established (their total turnover is even more than our annual budget), are expected to exhibit the highest ethical values but when they now come in here, they now influence the officials whom we are combating that they should not take bribe. They offer them bribe and destroy our society,” Aondoakaa said.
He went on: “And then if a contract is inflated, if you could see the difference, the inflated amount could have been used to create critical developments in other sectors and to tackle infrastructure, poverty and other challenges, like HIV/AIDS in Southern Sahara.
“We now said, ‘let us look at it. A civil claim does not preclude criminal action’. So, we said the best thing to do is that while the criminal investigation is going on, we should take up the civil case. On the civil case, it is on the balance of probability. Now, the conviction is beyond reasonable doubt. So, I don’t see where we can fail in getting damages for the country. At least, it would send a very strong signal. In most countries, the people get civil fines.
For instance, there are issues where Shell was also fined about $900million for also violating Nigerian law, yet we do nothing and these fines were paid to that country. It is like Nigeria is being used as a guinea pig to raise money for the taxpayers of those countries.
“So, this time around, we want to seek remittance. I think the most adequate compensation for Nigeria in the case of Halliburton is about $10billion. If you see the magnitude of the fraud involved, the naira rate to a dollar at that time and the damage it caused to the economy, nothing can be more compensating than them paying $10billion because it will help us to strengthen the critical infrastructure that they caused us to lose.”
“Let us deal with the civil matter because I cannot wait endlessly, Nigerians are in a hurry. They want to see that action is taken on this matter,” Aondoakaa said.
Last year, Halliburton fired its executive Albert Stanley for bribing senior Nigerian government officials over $180million.
The bribes were used to win a contract to build a liquefied-natural-gas plant in the country.
Stanley alleged that the bribe was paid through two agents to enable Halliburton win a $6billion contract.
The contract was for the building of a facility on Bonny Island in Rivers State to cool natural gas until it turns into liquid and can be transported on thermos-like tankers.
On October 4, 2007, a German court indicted Siemens for large-scale bribery to win multi-billion dollar contracts in Nigeria and about 15 other countries. Siemens was fined $14million for the offence.
The court named four former telecommunications ministers as beneficiaries of the bribe. A senator and some bureaucrats were also named.
They were said to have shared over 10 million euros bribe.
Two Siemens officials – Seidel and Gilbert – paid 500,000euros bribe to a minister in 2002. The minister collected another 70,000 euros in May 2004.
His colleague got 550,000 euros and 150,000euros on July 8, 2002 and August 28, 2003.
A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senator and bureaucrats got 185,000 euros.
Due to public outcry, the Yar’Adua administration blacklisted Siemens, but it later quietly reversed itself by relisting the firm among its contractors.