Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa is back to Nigeria from a prolonged vacation that saw him doing Dubai, India (where he reportedly took his parents for medical check up), Geneva, and London. He had also scheduled surgery for a personal ailment, but we are unable to confirm if he went through with it.
His whirlwind tour was barely known to the Nigerian people, except through Saharareporters. But details of his trip outside the country have emerged, as a series of new bribe scandals dog the notoriously corrupt minister.
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Aondoakaa is currently named in a bribe scandal involving the Cross Rivers State government over Tinapa. Last year, after Aondoakaa helped to shield the governor of the state, Liyel Imoke, from arrest and prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), leading to Imoke winning the re-run election, the Minister complained bitterly that he was under-compensated for saving the governor from the EFCC.
Shortly after he complained to Imoke, the Cross River state government sent a request to the Federal government asking Yar’adua presidency to help gazette TINAPA so that foreign investors and partners will feel comfortable doing business with the “white elephant” international complex constructed by the former governor of Cross Rivers state, Donald Duke.
Yar’adua directed Imoke to see the AGF for discussions on how to achieve the goals set out in the request. As soon as the Cross River state governor reached out to Aondoakaa, he immediately demanded $2 million compensation, saying that he would not touch the matter unless he received the bribe upfront.
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According to Cross River state officials and some Federal Ministry of Justice lawyers in the exercise, Imoke negotiated Aondoakaa’s rate to $1 million and paid upfront. Aondoakaa then constituted a legal team in his office to work on the gazette of TINAPA he also requested for a drafting team another bribe for N10 million.
In another case, Aondoakaa took $2.5 million from former Oil Resources minister, Dan Etete. This was in relation to the fight to regain control of the notorious oil block OPL 245 earlier seized from him by the Obasanjo regime. In November 2006, six months before Obasanjo left office, the licence to OPL 245 was restored to Etete as the former president sought and used him in the battle against the estranged Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar.
Shell Petroleum took Etete and the Federal government to court to frustrate the deal but Etete had aligned with Aondoakaa to help frustrate that effort, though Aondoakaa publicly repudiates all actions taken by the regime of former president Obasanjo, he is totally supportive of Etete’s battle to take back the choice oil block despite his conviction in France and series of allegations that have come to light on how Etete awarded himself the lucrative oil block. While working with Aondoakaa to get back his oil block, Etete also found in him a ready ally to bungle his money laundering case before a French Magistrate.
In a secret letter later brought to light by SaharaReporters, Aondoakaa wrote to the French Magistrate handling Etete’s trial to try influence the trial. In the letter, dated September 18 2007, and addressed to Bensimon Jacque C/o Justice Palace of Paris, Aondoakaa claimed to be unaware of any letters by his predecessor giving the power of attorney to a French lawyer, Eric Monfrini.
He wrote: “Permit me to state for the avoidance of any doubt that this office is unaware of any complaint or allegation of money laundering against the petitioner to warrant any instructions to emanate from this office to any person howsoever called or described to proceed against the petitioner in relation to the ongoing prosecution in Paris. I am therefore at a great difficulty appreciating the moves being made by your good self and which now ground the petition under reference, if the contents are indeed true and correct, in any event and as already stated supra, I am on a strong legal wicket or terra firma not to doubt the veracity of the petition having regards to the state of affairs as borne out in the file in my office. This again is subject to your ability to furnish this office with superior facts, which can unsettle those, contained in the petition.”
Despite this, in November 2007, the French court convicted Etete in absentia on charges of money laundering and sentenced him to three years imprisonment with a fine of 300,000 Euros. Dan Etete currently lives in luxury in Abuja.
Saharareporters reached out to Dan Etete’s company lawyer, Rasky Gbinigie, who denies that Etete bribed Aondoakaa over the OPL 245 case. When we confronted him about the 2007 letter to the French authorities by the AGF on behalf of his principal, he said that Aondoakaa was merely responding to a letter of inquiry sent to him by another lawyer to Chief Etete, Dele Adesina (SAN).
Interestingly, after receiving this series of bribes, Mr. Aondoakaa is maintaining a low profile. Sources attribute this to a nasty physical combat in his office with an unnamed individual who attacked him because Aondoakaa did not deliver on matters for which he had been paid hefty bribes. Aondoakaa claims his low profile is on account of his being busy writing the white paper on the “Electoral Reform Panel” set up by Yar’Adua. But sources knowledgeable about the series of scandals say he is simply trying to avoid some of the angry people who cannot get service for the heavy sums he collected from them.
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