“My Lord, the process of getting the defendants to come to court has proven difficult,” the agency’s lawyer, Mr. Ojogbane, told the court.
Browsing: Mr. Johnson Ojogbane
“The government will take steps, in collaboration with the international police to locate them and bring them back to Nigeria through extradition, which is a very cumbersome process, but it will be done,” Ojogbane said.
The OPL 245 was said to have been originally issued by the Federal Government to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited under shady circumstances before the subsequent transfers that ended with Shell and Agip, which the EFCC described as fraudulent.
The ruling could not go on as earlier scheduled by the court following three fresh applications filed by Malabu Oil, seeking to be joined in the matter as well as for an opportunity to be a party in the already heard applications filed by Shell and Agip.
According to an affidavit filed on his behalf by his lawyer, Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), in support of the fundamental rights suit, Yakubu had admitted to be owner of the money but claimed that it was a gift he accumulated over a period of about five years, and not proceeds of crime.
The OPL 245, an oil field believed to be the largest in Africa, was said have been fraudulently acquired from the Federal Government by Malabu Oil and Gas Limited in 1998 and afterwards sold to oil giants, Shell and Agip, in a shady transactions.