The former minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, is currently in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, after he was arrested on arrival at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport.
Let’s bring you a timeline of the events that led to the arrest of Former Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke.
The Malabu oil deal seemed to be the beginning of the travails of Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Muhammed Adoke.
He was attorney-general of the federation and Minister of Justice, from April 2010 to May 2015.
Mr Adoke was invited on 28th of December 2015 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for questioning over the Malabu Oil deal.
The EFCC officially filed charges against the former Attorney General on 21st of December 2016 on a nine count charge that he approved a transfer transaction of $1.1 billion to Nigerian bank accounts managed by former Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete, when he was in office.
The $1.1billion was allegedly paid by Royal Dutch Shell and Eni to the Federal government account for OPL 245 oil bloc.
On the 17th of April 2019, a High Court in Abuja issued an arrest warrant for Mr Adoke and four others for failing to appear at trial in connection with the Oil deal.
But in October, the warrant was nullified by the same judge that issued it, giving Mr Adoke renewed confidence to travel out of the country.
The red notice issued against him after the warrant was not withdrawn by the government; hence, Mr Adoke was arrested by Interpol in the United Arab Emirates and handed over to the country’s authorities where he was held for five weeks.
Earlier this month, he wrote the general secretariat of INTERPOL in France to demand his release.
News however came in this morning that Mr Adoke left Dubai for Nigeria, after the five-week legal deadlock.
Although he maintains that he is voluntarily returning to the country without pressure from the police in Dubai or anyone else, the EFCC says his return is due to the legal tussle and allegations he has to answer to.
The Former Attorney General has always maintained that the case brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was politically motivated, and he did nothing wrong in the OPL 245 affair.
He has repeatedly cited a court judgment that said he could not be prosecuted for actions he took while in office based on presidential directives.
