Alleged corruption: Adoke, Melaye talk tough as legal battle begins

[Mirror]

•I'll fight with everything as my integrity is at stake –Adoke (SAN)

•I will prove my allegations against you –Melaye

Less than two months ago, former member of House of Representatives and Executive Secretary of Anti-corruption Network, Otunba Dino Melaye, wrote President Jonathan Goodluck, pushing for removal of the incumbent Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) from office.

Melaye, in the letter, chronicled a chain of allegations, some of which were criminal in nature, against the chief law officer of the Federation.

The allegations which either portrayed Adoke (SAN) as grossly incompetent for the exalted position he is holding or criminally corrupt included refusal to produce 14 witnesses that were to testify in the $180m Halliburton bribery scandal, which led to the striking out of the suit by Justice Abubarkar Umar of an Abuja High Court.

Melaye had also alleged that the Malabu oil deal was dead and buried because Adoke (SAN) had refused to push the case and was, in fact, frustrating the prosecution while the charge against the officials of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission was also withdrawn against public interest.

"In the case of Erastus Akingbola at the Federal High Court in Lagos, a case of N10bn money laundering was struck out by Justice Charles Achibong on the grounds that the prosecution was shoddy, yet the case is yet to be revisited by the AGF.

"It is also laughable that the Federal Government of a country declared the Chairman of the dissolved Pension Reforms Task Team wanted; yet the AGF did not file any charge against him," the letter said.

According to Melaye, the AGF had also not shown any seriousness in the prison decongestion exercise, despite the huge amount of money earmarked for it and that 197 drug convicts that were to serve their jail terms did not get to prison in Lagos to serve their sentences at all and that he did nothing about it when NDLEA was under his ministry.

He also alleged that nothing had been heard about the over N150 billion in cash and assets forfeited by Cecilia Ibru, former Oceanic Bank MD who was convicted of fraud and sentenced to six months imprisonment by a Federal high court after she entered into a plea bargin with the Attorney- General of the Federation.

He also accused him of raising a memo on the case of Vaswani Brothers who were deported for a second time in April 2009 for an alleged N2.5 billion tax evasion that they should be allowed to return to Nigeria to do business, among other allegations.

Some of the allegations though were not new. But because the allegation from the former law-maker were formally made in the letter addressed to Jonathan, Adoke (SAN) said he would not begin to make any explanation as he did in the past but that the police should come in to investigate the matter and prosecute him if he was found wanting.

The police did not waste time to intervene as it did a letter dated May 8, 2013, inviting Melaye to its office to substantiate the allegation preparatory to possible prosecution of the chief law officer who, in fact, does not enjoy, constitutional immunity from trial.

Melaye who was to appear on May 10, 2013, before the police, however, applied for date extension till May 14 as a convenient date to report at the Police Headquarters.

But on the agreed date, Melaye appeared at the Police Headquarters with a letter saying that the decision by the police to investigate the matter was uncalled for since the letter containing all the allegations was addressed to Mr President and when the so-called investigation was at the instance of Adoke (SAN) and his solicitors.

Melaye had concluded in the letter by his attorney that "it is trite law that where a person feels aggrieved by any alleged defamatory publication, his redress is in the court of law" The police had since handed off the matter with the conclusion that the failure of Melaye to come forward to substantiate the allegation was an indication that he had nothing to offer and "consequently, the law of our land should take its full course.

The Inspector-General of Police had consequently advised Adoke (SAN) to proceed against Melaye to file direct criminal charges against him and his organization even as he added that the police case file was being kept in view pending further development. Based on the police advice, Adoke (SAN) stormed the Federal Capital Territory High Court with a libel process, demanding N10.2 billion as damages from Melaye. Already, the Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Abuja has summoned Melaye to appear either in person or by counsel to substantiate the allegation.

Specifically, Adoke is demanding N10billion as damages if Melaye could not substantiate the allegation. He is also asking for N200 million to defray the professional fees of lawyers he hired to prosecute the case. A consortium of four Chambers of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) including Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), Donald Denigwe (SAN), Babajide Koku (SAN) and Ahmed Raji (SAN) had been hired to prosecute the suit.

In his statement of claim, Adoke (SAN) had weaved the story of his life and how he struggled to build his career and integrity, attending various schools, seminars and holding various offices with impeccable records before he was made the Attorney- General of the Federation in 2010.

Although no past Attorney-General of the Federation since democracy berthed had served without being accused of gross abuse of office and outright corruption, Adoke (SAN) is the first to break the record by voluntarily submitting himself for probe and possible prosecution.

He denied all the allegations contained in the letter written by Melaye and added that he had no problem with anybody criticizing him in the way he had handled the duties of his office but that he would never allow anybody to make criminal allegations against him when his decisions in all the cases mentioned were selfless and in the interest of the public.

Sunday Mirror reports that Adoke (SAN) had responded in September 2010 to some of the allegations in Melaye's letter. For instance, Adoke (SAN) explained the decision of Federal Government in the US$180million Halliburton bribery scam thus: "we have been following the letters of the law to do what we are doing.

Let me tell you that in the Halliburton case in which many of you were not informed and started insulting us, without taking cognizance of what we were doing, if we had pursued the matter in court under the money laundering act, we would have got only N250, 000. But here, we got N4billion and it came at no cost to the government of Nigeria. And all the monies that we used in investigating, junketing from one country to another to get evidence were returned by Julius Berger.

"Until the weakness of this law is refocused, until we amend the law to bring it in term with reality, it is better for us to go by way of international best practice as it is done in America and other countries of the world whereby restitution is emphasized more than jail sentences.

"This is because when you jail them and you do not get anything in return from them, they will come back from jail and continue to use the money of corruption to oppress the society.

"But when they are made to pay three times or five times of the money involved, then it is better for the society because we can re-channel those monies to our infrastructural development," he said. On the Vaswani Brothers, Adoke (SAN) had also explained: "in the case of Vaswanis, there were three judgments obtained in court against the Federal Government.

On the strength of those judgments, their solicitor in the case, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), one time attorney-general of this country, wrote to complain to the President of this country to say that these were the judgments that were entered against the Federal Government and that EFCC had not appealed against it and these were the declarations made by the court.

"Would you expect me as the attorneygeneral of the federation not to obey court order. So if I obey, how does that mean that the Vaswani Brothers have given me monies to obey the court orders.

You press are so funny. Are you not aware that the court awarded money as damages in the sum of N10million against the EFCC for malicious prosecution of the Vaswanis? "All they were saying was that the Attorney- General collected monies to free the Vaswani Brothers. Who the hell are the Vaswani Brothers? If they run foul of the law, I will prosecute them.

But I will not just play to the gallery because I want to be a hero. I wont play to the gallery because I hold a very sensitive office and I have to balance and protect the interest of every Nigerian and those who do businesses in Nigeria irrespective of their nationalities," he added.

Adoke said he could have kept quiet like all his predecessors over all the allegations against him but that he wanted to show to the whole world that while some public servants could be corrupt, not all are bad and that the fact that constitution guarantees freedom of expression, the liberty never extended to defaming selfless government officials like himself.

But Melaye had told Adoke (SAN) over the N10.2billion libel suit instituted against him that he would tackle him in court, facts for facts, law for law.

He expressed appreciation to Adoke (SAN) for going to court, saying the court action would help his case.

His exact words: "We are yet to be served but as soon as we are served with court processes, we will consult with our lawyers.

"This move by the AGF will not be an escape route for him. He has tried using the Nigerian police, but we punctured his gimmicks.

"Now he thinks going to court, he will intimidate us but let me assure you that legal approach or action will only indict Adoke further" he added. Although the legal battle has begun, the opposing parties are however talking tough.

But whichever way the pendulum swings, this libel case will either vindicate Adoke or Melaye or mess them.

National Mirror