Malabu scam: Adoke still in EFCC custody, fails to meet bail conditions

News Agency of Nigeria reports, on Friday, that the former justice minister is being detained at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

Acting spokesman of the anti-graft agency, Mr Tony Orilade, who confirmed the information, said Adoke was still being held because he had not fulfilled his bail conditions.

“He has yet to fulfill his bail conditions as we speak, hence he still in our custody,” Orilade said, when contacted at 3.55 pm on Friday.

On January 23, the EFCC arraigned Adoke in an FCT High Court to answer 42 charges bordering on alleged fraud in the $1.1 billion Malabu oil deal.

Adoke was arraigned alongside Aliyu Abubakar, Rasky Gbinigie, Malabu Oil and Gas Limited, Agip, a subsidiary of Eni, Shell Nigeria Ultra-deep Limited, and Shell Nigeria Exploration Production Company Limited.

He is accused of receiving bribe worth N300 million from Aliyu over the deal for OPL 245, a charge he denied.

On Thursday, the presiding judge, Justice Abubakar Kutigi, granted him bail in the sum of N50 million with a surety who must have a landed property in the FCT.

Aliyu, who is the second defendant, also got a N50 million bail with one surety, while Gbinigie, the third defendant, got N10 million bail.

All sureties must be resident within the jurisdiction of the court, have landed property in the FCT, and must provide evidence of tax clearance for the last three years.

The judge also ordered the defendants to submit their passports to the court and also sign an undertaking to always attend trial sessions.