An Italian Court on Wednesday acquitted Shell, ENI and their managers in the controversial Malabu scandal which involved the sum of $1.1billion.
Recall that the said sum, was allegedly transferred by Shell and ENI through the Nigerian government to accounts controlled by a former Nigerian petroleum minister, Dan Etete.
According to reports, $520million (about half of the sum) came from accounts controlled by Etete, and were wired into accounts of companies controlled by Aliyu Abubakar, owner of AA oil.
While anti-corruption investigators and activists suspected that he fronted for top officials of the erstwhile Goodluck Jonathan and some other officials of Shell and ENI, the transaction was purportedly authorised in 2011 by Jonathan through some of his cabinet ministers, and the money was alleged payment for OPL 245, one of Nigeria’s richest oil blocks.
Although Shell and ENI initially claimed they did not know the money would end up with Etete and his cronies, subsequent evidence showed that the claim was false.
Sequel to the latest judgement on the case, Lanre Suraj, Chairman of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda, HEDA, whose organisation has been monitoring the trial, confirmed that anti-corruption activists monitoring the case would soon release a statement in reaction to the court prononcement.
