Date: 2017-04-13

The Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Justice, Razak Atunwa, on Wednesday reiterated that former President Goodluck Jonathan would be thoroughly investigated for authorising the $1.3 billion lease of OPL 245 oil block licence.

In a statement to Premium Times, Mr. Atunwa said his committee had been mandated by the House to conduct a thorough examination of the process and circumstances surrounding OPL 245 and identify culpability of any persons, groups or organisations."

"The committee is aware of recent information that has come to light, both nationally and internationally, indicating that former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan may have been complicit in the controversial OPL 245 deal," Atunwa said. He had told the medium in an interview that the committee was finalising arrangement to summon the former president.

"I can confirm that the former president is now on our radar following new details that were uncovered in latest news reports about the Malabu scandal," the former state Speaker said on telephone Monday.

But in his statement Wednesday, Atunwa said his committee was "closely monitoring the proceedings in the Italian courts instituted by the Public Prosecutor of Milan in which ministers in Jonathan Administration were mentioned including President Jonathan himself.

"These facts have firmly placed former President Goodluck Jonathan on the Committee's radar," he added.

On April 9, the medium reported that Jonathan might have received up to $200 million in bribes to approve the deal that has now become subject of international investigation based on report on Italian court documents obtained by BuzzFeed and Italian business newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore.

In the documents, Italian 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 Mr. 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 FBI submissions to Italian authorities as saying.

The revelations were made when the FBI interviewed Mr. Agaev, whom prosecutors also said met with Mr. Jonathan on more than one occasion in Nigeria during the OPL 245 negotiations.

Mr. Agaev, who was Mr. 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.

Spokesman for Jonathan, Ikechukwu Eze, did not respond to the paper's request for comments on the summon Wednesday night, but he issued a statement Tuesday which downplayed the report as "hearsay evidence from a man of questionable character who provided no substance to back up his false claim, "in reference to Mr. Agaev.

Atunwa promised Nigerians that the House panel would "be meticulous, thorough and comprehensive" in its inquiry.