The bank, which became an ‘Escrow agent’ by the terms of the deal, said it was obliged to receive the money and transfer to accounts nominated by the Nigerian government but was not a party to the Malabu Resolution deal.
NAE transferred the amount to the account in two instalments on May 24, the documents revealed.
The bank claimed that by a letter from the then Minister of State for Finance, Ngama, dated August 3, 2011, the Federal Government of Nigeria informed the bank of new signatories to the Depository Terms.
Ngama’s letter, it said, stated that instructions on the depository account should be given by one “Category A” signatory and one “Category B” signatory. While Ngama himself and Kifasi were named as “Category A” signatories, Messrs Ogunniyi and Shehu were named “Category B”.
On August 17, 2011, the bank said a written instruction signed by Ngama and Ogunniyi instructed the bank to transfer the sum of $401,540,000 and a separate $400,000,00 to two accounts in the name of Malabu at First Bank and Keystone Bank, respectively.
On August 23, the bank said it completed telephone call-backs to both Ogunniyi and Ngama to confirm their written instructions, obtained go-ahead consent from UK’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) before it subsequently made the transfers.
By July 3, 2011, the bank said it received another instruction from Ngama and Ogunniyi requesting the transfer of $74,200,000 to a Malabu account at Keystone Bank. Again, the bank said it completed telephone call-backs to the duo to confirm the instruction and obtained a SOCA go-ahead authorisation before it effected the transfer of the fund.
In making both transfers, the bank said it acted pursuant to valid, irrevocable and binding instructions given by the Federal Government of Nigeria as it was required to do under the terms of the Depository Agreement.
It also denied knowledge of the Nigerian government’s claims that the Malabu Resolution Agreement was a “sham” because according to its Depository Agreement, it stated that it had no knowledge of any other agreement the Nigerian government was into as it was not a party to it.
While Ngama was a political appointee of the Nigerian government at the time, Ogunniyi, Kifasi and Shehu, were public servants. None of them is currently facing prosecution over the Malabu scandal.
Ogunniyi, however, is being prosecuted by the EFCC over a separate money laundering case involving diversion of N2 billion from the account of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
Few months after President Muhammadu Buhari assumed power in 2015, he approved the pre-retirement leave for Kifasi with effect from October 20, 2015.
Ngama, now a leader of the APC, defected to the ruling party after he lost in his bid to contest as governor in Yobe State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.
It had been earlier reported that when invited for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFFC), the former minister of state for finance said he acted based on the directive of then President Jonathan.
The then Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, who is on exile, said in a statement in 2016 that his office helped the country broker the agreement between Malabu Oil and Gas Limited and Shell Nigeria Limited to prevent Nigeria from paying a fine of $2 billion as damages for breach of contract.
The EFCC later filed charges against him and Etete.
The notorious Malabu deal, over OPL245, involved Shell, Italian oil company Eni, Etete, a former President Jonathan and his then oil minister, Dieziani Alison-Madueke.
In March, an Italian court adjourned the trial of Shell and Eni and its former executives to May, 2018. All of them have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Etete, who remains unreachable, has also denied wrongdoing.
Similarly, Jonathan, who is not facing trial and under whose administration the deals were struck, has also denied wrongdoing.
