Some 24-hours after an online news website, ireports-ng.com, published details of Mr. Adoke's multi-million dollars in secret bank accounts, Nigeria's controversial attorney general admitted to another website that he in fact owns accounts in the banks reported by the website.
Mr. Adoke told Pointblanknews that he indeed owns the accounts, but claimed the deposits in the said accounts were not up to the amounts published by Ireports-ng.
"I have accounts with FCMB and Diamond Banks. I have a salary account with Intercontinental Bank and these are the only accounts I have been operating since I was appointed Attorney-General," he told Pointblanknews.com. Then he added: "But the accounts in the said banks are far, far lower than the figures they are peddling."
But the minister's attempt to understate his staggering cash holdings has triggered more
revelations of his financial shenanigans. iReports.ng has released more devastating
information about Mr. Adoke's ties to and financial involvement with several companies
that have ripped Nigerians off in fuel subsidy scams.
The site reported that some of Mr. Adoke's close allies, infuriated with his despicable
role to put down the on-going nationwide strike in the country, have provided documents
that lay bare the minister's stupendous wealth hidden in over 25 blue chip companies in
Nigeria – including firms that have reaped fraudulent profits from the contentious oil
subsidy funds.
A rundown of the documents made available to ireports-ng.com reveal that Mr. Adoke is
a major investor in Oando Oil, a firm that gulped down more than N228 billion out of the
N1.4 trillion shared by about 100 oil marketers between January and August, 2011. The
website's investigation indicated that the Justice Minister owns an investment of about
N1.5 billion in Oando Oil PLC.
Other documents also show that Mr. Adoke has a major investment stake in Eterna Oil
which raked in about N5.57 billion from the fuel subsidy bonanza. In addition to N1 billion investment in Eterna, the minister also has N2 billion tucked in a company called
Novasys Ltd.
A top-level political source in Abuja who is close to President Goodluck Jonathan told
SaharaReporters today that the attorney general's cozy relationship with some of the oil
marketers was the reason the government has refused to pursue the option of prosecuting
fraudulent profiteers who have cheated Nigerians of hundreds of billions of naira in the
name of fuel subsidy.
"Mohammed [Adoke] and others in government are getting their share of the subsidy
funds – and that's why nobody is talking about trying those defrauding the system," said
the source.
Mr. Adoke's corrupt deals also extend to the banking, telecommunications and real estate
sectors. Reliable informants reveal that the minister has extensive investments in major
banks in the country. Some of them include about N400 million in Oceanic Bank; N200
million in UAC properties; about N20 million in Guaranty Trust Bank; about N360
million in Access Bank; about $400,000 US dollars in MTN; about N1 billion in Japaul Oil & Maritime; about N15 million in Bank PHB; about N100 million in First Bank; about N20 million in FCMB, and about N6 million in Unity Bank PLC.
Saharareporters had earlier exposed Mr. Adoke's central role in pushing the Central
Bank of Nigeria to pay a businessman and associate of the minister an outrageous sum to
purchase a NITEL property that the businessman had bought cheap from the government.
Following our earlier report about the minister's bank accounts, a source in one of the
banks revealed that Mr. Adoke had initiated moves to deplete his funds in the bank.
Other sources disclosed that Mr. Adoke owns more than 30 luxury vehicles that he has
purchased in the last three years alone. In addition he owns several landed properties in
Abuja. A source in the Ministry of Justice told SaharaReporters "it is well known that
the minister collects money, cars and cash from individuals and corporations on whose
behalf he subverts the course of justice."
Saharareporters has consistently revealed that Mr. Adoke has distinguished himself as
one of the most fraudulent and corrupt ministers in the Jonathan regime. His immersion
in corruption follows a trend set by disgraced former Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa.
Like Mr. Aondoakaa, who was close to former Supreme Court Justice Aloysius Katsina-
Alu, the current AGF used his closeness to the same (now retired) justice to secure his
place in President Jonathan's cabinet. Through his closeness to the notoriously corrupt
Katsina-Alu, Mr. Adoke fixed the apex court's verdict upholding Mr. Jonathan's election
as president.
Our political sources said the president is as indebted to Adoke as the late President
Umaru Yar'adua was to Aondoakaa.
A source described Adoke as "one of President Jonathan's most powerful ministers," adding that the minister is "a core member of the president's kitchen cabinet.
Source: Sahara Reporters
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