$1.1bn Malabu 245 Oil Scam: Olanrewaju Suraju should be encouraged not intimidated ~ PressTv

“Police Court” cannot interfere in a corruption case that is before competent courts in Nigeria and Italy.

Instead of Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke to face his corruption cases in court squarely or feign sickness and escape from Nigeria again, police is helping him to harass Lanre Suraj, an international anti-corruption crusader and Chairman of HEDA, whose organization has exposed the syndicated Malabu oil fraud and other international oil business corruption deals in which Nigeria was swindled in billions of dollar of oil wealth.

It’s very ridiculous that police is taking extra judicial step to meddle in a very serious judicial matter in order to intimidate Suraj and his HEDA’s team of thorough, fearless and objective anticorruption fighters. Malabu oil scandal is in the open and HEDA has consistently and painstakingly followed it up at great risk to the lives of Suraj and others involved in the International investigation and prosecution which was a major breakthrough in whistle blowing in exposing elite’s international conspiracy with multinational oil corporations including Shell and Eni, to loot Nigeria’s oil well dry in the midst of mass poverty, hunger, unemployment, homelessness, poor social infrastructure and insecurity that the country’s abundant oil wealth could have resolved if judiciously spent by the corrupt neo-liberal ruling elite.

I remember that after I read editions of HEDA’s Compendium of 100 High Profile Corruption Cases where Malabu oi sale fraud was consistently mentioned, I put a call to Suraj last year to commend him and his team. I also warned him to be extra careful about his safety because of his organization’s persistent followup on the Malabu oil mega scandal involving powerful oil bandits parading as government officials and oil merchants short-changing Nigeria in alliance with Eni, Shell and others at will with impunity.

Oil bandits are like drug bandits internationally, they don’t joke or forgive, they kill, maim, blackmail anyone or anything they consider as a stumbling block to their huge profit interest in their shady deals. Oil and drug cartels are criminal gangsters who can control governments, sponsor politicians into high profile public offices, control structures of government including security agencies all in desperation to protect their individuals and gangs’ selfish business deals.

If any evidence had been admitted as exhibit by court, it doesn’t lie in the power of the police to start chasing and detaining anyone who tendered or alleged to tender the exhibit in court. If the accused who the exhibit was used against in court and admitted by court now alleged that the exhibit was forged, the best expected of the accused is to go back to court or a higher court to destroy legally that “forged exhibit” used again him. And if the court, in its wisdom admits that the exhibit earlier tendered was forged and misleading, then police can move in to investigate and prosecute the alleged forgers after the conclusion of the case in court.

What the police is doing now is meddlesome interloping, a subjudice in a case before international and national courts. The arrest and detention of Lanrewaju Suraj by the police based on allegation of forgery of evidences admitted by a Milan Court in Italy by the said Adoke, a former Attorney General and a fugitive from law, who had to be repatriated by Interpol to Nigeria to face a money laundering case in the same Malabu $1.1bn oil sale scam alleged against him by the EFCC, is vexatious, unreasonable and an attempt at a cover up the dirty oil deals in which Adoke, Etete and Diezani with others were allegedly involved.

How can Olanrewaju Suraj, a public spirited hunter of the corrupt now become the hunted in a kangaroo “police court” where he was detained before released on bail? This suggests a case of corruption fighting back ruthlessly with AK47 to intimidate crusaders against corruption into silence or death and this must be resisted by all discerning members of the public who are the primary victims of Malabu oil scam and other shady oil deals.

A serious police force is expected to be partner with national and international anti-corruption organizations and individual whistle blowers. Police should be very diligent not to be a willing tool in the hands of successful corruption practitioners prowling the economic and political space of Nigeria. The overindulgence of many transparently corrupt politicians by security agencies, anti-graft bodies and many docile Nigerians remains the bane of bourgeois politics in the country where huge fund from illicit drug and oil deals and direct stealing from public funds are readily available to capture political power by many discredited politicians and power bandits.

Once again, police should enlighten Mohammed Bello Adoke to go back to the Italian court that admitted the alleged forged exhibit used against him in the Malabu 245 oil scam trial or wait for his trial in the ongoing corruption case in Nigeria if the same “forged e-mails” will be used against him.
This is a simple process in law which any “Junior Advocate of Nigeria” JAN, should know not to talk of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN.
Enough is Enough of this intimidation and indulgence.