The federal government, on Friday, indicted the president, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA)Olanrewaju Suraju, for allegedly cyberbullying the former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mohamed Adoke.
Mr. Adoke had requested the police to charge the president of HEDA with peddling falsehoods against him regarding the Malabu Oil scam.
Mr. Suraju was indicted before Binta Nyako, Judge of the Abuja Federal High Court, on a two-count amended charge.
In count one of counts marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/370/2021, Mr. Suraju is accused of intentionally circulating an audio telephone interview between a Ms. Carlamaria Rumur, a reporter for RIAReporter in Italy, about Mohammed Adoke through his Twitter account. @HEDAagenda, which she knew was false.
The prosecution charged him with spreading the alleged falsehood for the purpose of insulting Adoke and thereby committing an offense under section 24 of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, ETC) Act 2015 and punishable under the same section of the law.
In count two, the defendant is accused of committing the same crime in count one through the Facebook handle @HEDAResourcecentre.
Suraju denied both charges and pleaded not guilty when read to him on Friday.
Salihu Bagudu of the Federation Attorney General’s Office announced the appearance for the indictment, while Muiz Banire, Senior Advocate for Nigeria (SAN), announced Mr. Suraju’s legal representation.
HEDA President Suraju Olanrewaju
Mrs. Nyako released Mr. Suraju on bail after Mr. Banire’s impassioned plea.
The court, however, ordered the defendant to hand over the N7 million check to the court recorder, being the highest sum for the penalty of the crime upon conviction.
The lawsuit was adjourned until May 10 for hearing.
The arraignment had suffered three previous adjournments due to the absence of the prosecution and Ms. Nyako.
Background
Mr. Adoke had applied to the Nigerian police for the circulation of the audio tape and email which Mr. Adoke claimed were falsified to incriminate him in connection with the Oil Prospecting License (OPL) corruption case245 in Milan, Italy.
The police investigated Mr. Adoke’s petition against Mr. Suraju and subsequently sent the case file to the Federation Attorney General’s Office, which filed a cyber bullying case against Mr. Suraju.
But, during his series of denials of wrongdoing regarding the matter, HEDA and Mr. Suraju had explained that the items he was accused of manufacturing were court exhibits that appeared at the Malabu Oil fraud trials in Milan, Italy. .
In their open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federation Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, they argued that the statements allegedly made by Mr. Suraju were identical to those made by the Federal Republic of Nigeria in its civil cases against JP Morgan Chase. in London and his case against Shell, Eni and other defendants in Milan.
Nigeria has been a party to civil and criminal cases in the UK, Italy and the US in an attempt to get the beneficiaries of the fraudulent transactions to register and recover the proceeds of the controversial deal from them.
The email and audio tape that Adoke complained about had surfaced in the criminal case in Milan, Italy, over the transfer of around $1.1 billion by Shell and ENI through the Nigerian government to controlled accounts. by a former Nigerian oil minister, give etete.
Controversies surrounding OPL 245 began in 1998 when Etete originally awarded the block to Malabu Oil and Gas Limited while he was serving as oil minister under the Sani Abacha regime.
Nigerian investigators and activists alleged that Etete bribed some senior officials in Goodluck Jonathan’s administration after Eni and Shell controversially acquired OPL 245, one of Nigeria’s richest oil blocks.
The Nigerian government did not benefit from the $1.1 billion transferred for the acquisition of the rich oilfield, while the oilfield ownership logjam remained unresolved.
In 2011, the AGF, Mr. Adoke, advised the management of Goodluck Jonathan on the OPL 245 transactions at the time to resolve the property logjam that had prevented it from being explored over the years.
His name has repeatedly appeared in matters related to the deal. He is currently being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at the Federal High Court in Abuja for his role in the alleged scam.
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A Milan court later acquitted Eni and Shell of the charges brought against them for the Malabu scam.