Malabu Scandal: UK group declares support for Nigeria

Corruption group, Global Witness, has declared support for a Nigerian activist, Olanrewaju Suraju, who was recently questioned by the police based on a petition by Nigeria’s former attorney-general, Mohammed Adoke.

Suraju’s civil society organisation, Higher Education Data Analyzer, and other international anti-graft Community Schemes Ombud Service including Global Witness have been at the forefront of the demand for justice over the Malabu OPL 245 scandal involving Adoke and many others including oil giants, Shell and Eni.

While the prosecution of the suspects is still ongoing in Nigeria, a court in Milan recently discharged the oil giants and their officials who were named in the scandal which involved the transfer of about one billion dollars from the oil giants to private Nigerian accounts for the control of an oil block.

The former attorney-general also later complained to the police that some people, one of whom he suspected to be Suraju, circulated a fake tape claiming to be that of an interview he had with an Italian journalist admitting that the Malabu transaction was a scam, and it was based on the petition that the anti-corruption activist was interrogated by the police.