A private plane and a Nigerian minister are at the centre of a $1-billion corruption scandal.
On the evening of Friday May 29, a luxury private plane landed at Montréal-Trudeau International Airport in Canada. It was a Bombardier 6000 jet, with the tail number M-MYNA and a resplendent green and white livery – the colours of Nigeria’s flag.
This particular plane is at the centre of one of Nigeria’s biggest corruption scandals. In 1998, in the last weeks of Sani Abacha’s military regime, then-oil minister Dan Etete effectively awarded the oil prospecting rights to the huge OPL-245 block to a company called Malabu Oil and Gas.After Abacha’s sudden death, Etete retained the rights as a private citizen until he offloaded them to oil giants Shell and Eni in 2011, who paid a combined $1.3-billion to the Nigerian government.
All parties in the Milan trial have denied the charges against them. The Nigerian authorities have also charged Etete and several others linked to Malabu with money laundering in connection with the onward flow of funds from the OPL-245 deal.Nigeria issued an arrest warrant for him earlier this year. Authorities are understood to be seeking his extradition.Nigeria also wants to get its money back, which is where Bode Johnson and his team of asset recovery lawyers comes in.
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