Int’l Anti-Corruption Groups Condemn Detention Of Nigerian Activist, Suraju Of HEDA

LAGOS APRIL 18^TH (NEWSRANGERS)- International anti-corruption and human rights groups have strongly condemned the detention of leading Nigerian anti-corruption activist Olanrewaju Suraju of HEDA, one of the first non-governmental groups to expose corruption allegations surrounding the acquisition of the OPL 245 oil field by oil multinationals Shell and Eni.

Mr Suraju, along with the NGOs Corner House, Global Witness and Re:Common, has been accused by the former Nigerian Attorney General Mohammed Adoke of forging an email that formed part of the prosecution case in the recently concluded trial of the two multinationals and 11 other defendants in Milan. The defendants were all acquitted. 

The email was sent to an employee of JP Morgan Chase, the bank that held the proceeds of the deal on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria. It was signed by a Mohammed Bello Adoke.

The email was from an address associated with a company owned by Aliyu Abubakhar, who is charged along with Adoke in Nigeria with offenses related to the OPL 245 deal. Abubakhar denies wrongdoing in Nigeria, as does Adoke.

The email first came to light in 2021 as part of civil proceedings by the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) against JP Morgan Chase [JPMC] in the High Court in London, where it was disclosed by JPMC and cited by the FRN in support of its claim.

In a Joint Statement, Mr Suraju and the three NGOs have categorically denied Adoke’s assertions that the email is a forgery, and that the forgery was done by the organisations behind the petitions that led to the prosecution of Shell, Eni and others in Italy and Nigeria.

The groups state:”We recognise that the email would certainly appear damaging to Mr Adoke. Specifically, its points to an apparent association between a Mohammed Bello Adoke and the Abubakar company that subsequently arranged the purchase of a house for former Attorney General Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke SAN. Moreover, that association is specifically tied to the OPL 245 deal through the email. 

“We categorically deny that we forged the email, the notion is entirely fanciful. It was obtained through a government-to-government request from Italy to the United Kingdom. The documentation is now part of the public record and Mr Suraju supplied the full intergovernmental correspondence to the investigating police officer. It is clear from the correspondence that the email was obtained from JP Morgan by the UK Serious Fraud Office and transmitted directly to the Milan Prosecutor. Neither Mr Suraju and his organisation HEDA, nor Corner House nor Global Witness nor Re:Common were involved at any stage in the chain of custody. 

“The original email as received by JPMC will have properties and electronic information that would enable the identification of the IP address from which it was sent. The Nigerian police should request this information and release Mr Suraju immediately.

“We will be raising Mr Suraju’s totally unjustified detention with the board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and calling for Nigeria’s suspension pending an investigation into Mr Suraju’s detention and the motivation for the allegations of forgery.

The statement signed by Nicholas Hildyard of Cornerhouse, Simon Taylor of Globalwitness, Luca Manes of Re:Common and Arigbabu Sulaimon of HEDA calls for proper investigation of the forgery allegation and immediate halt to the target of Mr Suraju and HEDA for attack while also urging other human rights defenders and anti-corruption campaigners to do the same.

On 28 Mar 2021, at 12:55 PM, info@hedang.org wrote:

PRESS  STATEMENT

SUNDAY, MARCH 28, 2021  The partial freedom granted oil giants by Italian courts  in the celebrated OPL 245 corruption case will not stop the prosecution of the accused in Nigeria, a foremost global anti-corruption coalition has said.

In a letter addressed to President Muhammad Buhari, the world acclaimed anti-corruption coalition said Nigeria should press on with the corruption charges and should not be cowed by any bully tactics of the oil giants who may see the Italy ruling as a shield.

The coalition’s petition was signed by Luca Manes of Re:Common, Nicholas Hildyard of The Corner House, Olanrewaju Suraju of Human and Environmental Development Agenda, (HEDA Resource Centre) and Simon Taylor, Global of Witness.

Eni, Shell and some Nigerian officials were involved in backwater dealings involving billions of illicit funds embezzled.

The Milan Tribunal ruled on 17 March 2021 that the 13 defendants in OPL 245 international corruption trial had no case to answer. But there are prospects of an appeal in Italy. 

The coalition said it understands that the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office will likely appeal the verdict.

It said unlike in Nigeria and other common law jurisdictions, Italian law does not permit judges to convict on the basis of circumstantial evidence. 

The group recalled that the recent Supreme Court rulings have set the bar for international corruption so high that a conviction is difficult unless there is naked evidence of a bribe being paid, captured on camera or on tape. 

“We fear that the OPL 245 case may have fallen at this hurdle, despite the voluminous evidence submitted by the Prosecutor as to the knowledge of Shell and Eni that bribes would be paid; that the Resolution Agreements were designed by the two companies to use the Federal Government of Nigeria as a shield to protect themselves from making direct payments to Etete; and the meticulous tracing of where the payments ended up”

The coalition said because of the differences between legal systems in Italy and Nigeria, no “double jeopardy” agreement exists between the two countries, hence, Eni, Shell, Etete, Abubakar and several others who were charged in Milan are also being prosecuted in Nigeria.

“We are aware of mischievous, self-serving calls in press from allies of those being charged that the Nigerian prosecutions should be dropped on the basis that Milan has found no case to answer. These calls must be rejected. Italy is not in charge of Nigeria’s justice system. The judges in Nigeria must be allowed to hear the cases and to judge them on the basis of Nigerian law. Indeed, the world is now watching the Nigerian prosecutions,” it said.

The group said the judgment of the international community, already alarmed by the dismal Italian ruling, is likely to be harsh were Nigeria to drop the cases, given the strength of the evidence amassed by the EFCC.

“The need to put the Milan judgment into perspective is all the more urgent given allegations that the trial may have been polluted. The Milan Prosecutor sought to admit a statement by Piero Amara, a former outside counsel for Eni, that Eni had conducted surveillance of the prosecutors, key witnesses and the judges in order to discredit witnesses or gain an advantage in the trial”

The anti-corruption group said the full transcript of Amara’s statement was not made public, that large parts were blacked out and the judges refused to admit the evidence.

It noted that an Italian newspaper has now reported on the blacked out parts of the statement, which reportedly allege that Eni’s lawyer had “preferential” access to OPL 245 judges. 

“The allegations were investigated by the Italian authorities but were dismissed after Eni denied them. If true, Amara’s allegations would constitute strong grounds for a retrial. We therefore urge Nigeria, as the victim in the case, to demand that the full text of Amara’s evidence is made public so that the Nigerian public – and the wider international community – can be satisfied that there was nothing untoward in the conduct of the trial.”

It  applauded  the stance of Buhari in his letter to Eni of 14 June 2018, in which he stated that there should be no decision on whether or not to award an OML to the companies until extant prosecutions were complete. 

“We urge you to hold the line and to resist siren calls for negotiations with Eni and Shell in the wake of the Milan trial. We believe that the companies should respect the prosecutorial process in Nigeria and should not use a judgment in Italy to bully Nigeria into making concessions that undermine the rule of domestic law. 

It said recent arbitration cases filed with ICSID by both companies claiming unsubstantiated and exaggerated damages are a confirmation of their bullying and not respectful attitude towards the Nigerian government and people.

“We as civil society organisations and partners in the promotion of accountability in the extractive sector are in solidarity with the Nigerian Government and Italian Prosecutors in ensuring justice is delivered in this and other relevant cases” it said.

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