Malabu deal: Mohammed Abacha reveals how $1.1bn was shared - Newspaper review
According to court papers, a son of the late military Head of State, Sani Abacha, Mohammed, and a known associate of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Oyewole Fasawe, gave details of how OPL 245 was allegedly taken from them and sold to the SNUD, SNEPCO and NAE consortium in 2011.
NAIJ.com has prepared the newspaper review for March 27, 2017, and the major headlines we found on Nigerian newspapers are as follows:
This Day's headline is on the Malabu deal and who the major beneficiaries were
According to This Day, a son of the late military Head of State, Sani Abacha, Mohammed, and a known associate of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Oyewole Fasawe, gave details of how OPL 245 was allegedly taken from them and sold to the SNUD, SNEPCO and NAE consortium in 2011.
They also provided insight into how the $1.1 billion paid by the consortium for OPL 245, which was facilitated by the Nigerian government, was shared by some prominent individuals, without the knowledge and involvement of a majority of the actual owners of Malabu Oil.
Abacha and Fasawe equally gave details, in their joint plaintiffs’ statement of claims, in a suit they recently filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, of the roles allegedly played by former Ministers of Petroleum, Justice and Finance – Etete, Adoke and Yerima Lawal Ngama, respectively – in the transaction leading to the sale of OPL 245 and the lodgment of the proceeds from the deal in the federal government’s escrow account.
READ ALSO: Malabu scandal: Abacha’s son, Fasawe reveal how details of $1.1bn was shared
The fate of the acting chairman of the EFCC , Ibrahim Magu might be in the hands of Vice President Osinbajo
According to Vanguard, President Muhammadu Buhari is weighing two options on the fate of Mr Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The two options limited to either forwarding his name again to the Senate or appointing a fresh nominee for the position, Vanguard learned, would be based on the legal advice of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Mr. Abubakar Malami.
READ ALSO: Obasanjo denies involvement in Malabu scandal
The EFCC has begun a probe of the Senate president Bukola Saraki's aides over the Paris Club refund
According to The Nation, the EFCC has frozen 15 accounts of some individuals and companies for the alleged diversion of N19billion from the London-Paris loan refund.
Besides, about $183,000 (N71, 370,000) of the loan refund has been traced to a jeweller’s account in Dubai.
The anti-graft agency is probing a former Heritage Bank Executive Director Mr. Robert Mbonu, three aides of Senate President Bukola Saraki and three others on how N3.5billion was wired into some accounts.
The cash is said to be part of the N19billion allegedly diverted from the N522.74 billion initial refund to states.
The 2016 budget has broken a few records
According to The Punch, the federal government has said that it has so for released N1tn to its Ministries, Department and Agencies for the implementation of the capital component of the 2016 budget.
The minister of finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, who disclosed the figure during a meeting with members of the House of Representatives’ Tactical Committee on Recession in her office in Abuja, stated that the amount was the highest release to be made in the history of the country.
As the drama unfolds between the Comptroller General of Customs and the Senate, an investigation has been launched
According to The Guardian, the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff has begun an investigation into how over N4 trillion was lost at the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) between 2006 and 2016.
It decried the inability of the Technical Committee on the Implementation of Comprehensive Import Supervision Scheme to ensure compliance with its provisions .
The panel vowed that the upper legislative chamber would stop at nothing at recovering the funds that were lost to lapses and various infractions.
The customs has a yearly target to improve the nation’s revenue. But it has been dogged by allegations of corruption. An investigation may engender transparency in its operations .
It may also lead to the recovery of the lost N4 trillion revenue which is 57% of the N7.2 trillion national budget for 2017 by the Federal Government .
Such recovered funds will be deployed by the government for good governance that will ultimately improve the citizens’ well-being.
NAIJ.com TV recently visited Otodo-Gbame, Lekki, Lagos to cover the ongoing destruction. Watch the video below: