TheCable

The Nigerian Police Force says its report accusing Olanrewaju Suraju, HEDA Resource Centre chairman, of falsehood against Mohammed Bello Adoke, former attorney-general of the federation (AGF) is not fake.

Premium Times reported that a top official of the inspector-general of police (IGP) monitoring team confirmed that the report was produced by the leadership of his unit based on Adoke’s request.

WHAT WAS THE ACCUSATION?

Earlier this month, the police force had indicted Suraju of falsehood in the probe of an allegation that an email and phone conversation attributed to Adoke were forged.

HEDA alleged that Adoke had communicated with JP Morgan in June 2011 over an oil prospecting licence (OPL) 245 transaction between Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd, Shell and Eni.

Adoke was accused of using the email address of a company owned by Aliyu Abubakar, who was on trial in Italy over the OPL 245 affair.

The email was intended to support the claim that there was corruption in the deal, that Adoke — who was not on trial in Italy — and Abubakar “worked together” to fleece Nigeria in the deal.

However, the former AGF denied the accusation, explaining that he was no longer minister as of the date it was sent and had no reason to use another person’s email address.

He also refuted claims that he had a phone conversation with an Italian journalist in 2017 where he was said to have acknowledged that the OPL 245 deal was a scam.

Adoke said the phone conversation was state-managed, adding that he was on self-exile at the time and had stopped using a Nigerian line since June 2015.

Following the situation, he requested for an investigation of the allegations against him to be carried out by the IGP.

However, Suraju told TheCable that the police report is “fake”, adding that the monitoring team is still conducting its investigation.

POLICE CONFIRM REPORT IS AUTHENTIC

With Suraju’s denial of the report, the official told Premium Times that “I can confirm to you that our unit issued the report to Adoke. He asked for it and we gave it to him for information and record purposes only.

“But when Olanrewaju Suraju called, he asked if we gave any report to TheCable. We said no because we indeed gave no report to TheCable.

“We did not tell him that the report we gave Adoke, which found its way to the media, is fake. It is not fake but we do not know how it got to the media. When we issued it, we indicated clearly that it was for information and record purposes only.”

TheCable management says it is considering its legal options over accusations by Suraju that it faked the report.