Kashamu blasts Jonathan AFTER FBI Releases Documents Exposing Jonathan $200 Million Fraud Deal
Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, is set to face immediate arrest anytime he steps his feet in the United States, US, for allegedly receiving as much as $200 million, to approve the controversial $1.3 billion sale of OPL 245 oil field, as exposed by FBI documents.
The documents, which were extracts of a thorough investigation by Italian authorities into the deal, also confirmed that Shell and ENI knew a good chunk of the $1.3 billion would be disbursed as kickbacks to Nigerian politicians, yet went ahead with the deal.
The prosecutors quoted Ednan Agaev, a Russian middleman who helped negotiate the transfer of the oil block to Shell and ENI, as saying that Dan Etete, the former Petroleum Minister at the heart of the oil scandal, said he intended to dole out as much as $400 million in bribes, if the deal went through.
If Etete actually paid out such an amount in bribes to Nigerian officials, “Agaev stated that he would think President Goodluck Jonathan got at least $200 million of this money,” BuzzFeed quoted an excerpt of the FBI’s submissions to Italian authorities as saying.
The revelations were made when the FBI interviewed Agaev, whom prosecutors also said met with Jonathan on more than one occasion in Nigeria, during the OPL 245 negotiations.
Agaev, who was Etete’s representative in the negotiation, said the convicted former Petroleum Minister, told him of the $400 million bribe to Nigerian politicians, when he approached him for his payment.
When FBI detectives asked Mr. Agaev about payment of his commission, he stated that he went to Etete and told him to pay him the $65,000,000 fee. Agaev stated that Etete said, I can’t pay you, I have to pay Adoke [Mohammed Bello Adoke, then Nigeria’s Attorney General] $400 million, and all the other people in the Senate and the National Assembly.
The Russian also repeated the claim in a follow-up interview with Italian prosecutors, led by Fabio De Pasquale in Milan.
“I said that if it’s true that he paid, he had to pay 400 million, I assume that at least 200 went to Goodluck (Jonathan).”
“I heard from Chief (Etete), he claims that he had to pay 400 million, so if this is true, if he paid 400 million, then most probably the President, as the biggest boss, took at least the half of it,” BuzzFeed wrote, quoting documents prepared by Italian prosecutors.
The findings, which included internal emails and phone conversations of Shell’s officials and agents, also revealed how Etete’s wife allegedly stated that her husband was getting only a part of the total sum paid by Shell.
“The rest goes in paying people off,” BuzzFeed reported.
However, Jonathan’s Spokesperson, Ikechukwu Eze, could not be reached for comments about the latest revelations.
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