Malabu oil deal: Don’t rope me into your mess – Obasanjo warns Adoke

Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has warned a former Attorney-General of the Federation, Bello Adoke, to cease further mention of his name in the controversial $1.1 billion Malabu Oil deal.

Obasanjo gave the warning from Addis Ababa during an interview with the media.

The ex-President said he saw the controversial award of OPL 245 oil field licence as the “height of corruption,” and, as such, could not have participated in negotiations that led to it.

His rebuttal came a day after Adoke insisted that the controversial Malabu oil Block Agreement was endorsed by the previous administrations of Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan.

However, Obasanjo admonished Adoke to concentrate on rendering accounts of his actions while in public service and stop the name-dropping forthwith.

“I don’t support that kind of conduct,” Mr. Obasanjo said in his first reaction to the intercontinental oil scandal that has haunted three administrations for nearly a decade.

“Adoke and others should not drag me into a matter I know nothing about,” Mr. Obasanjo said.

“If they have been asked to answer questions over decisions they took while in office, they should do that honourably.

“They should not bring Obasanjo into an Etete deal. I was not part of any such deal.”

“If I hold that view, I could not have approved a deal with Dan Etete. What Etete did is the height of corruption. He appropriated the asset to himself illegally, illegitimately and immorally,”

Obasanjo added that it was inappropriate for any government functionary to “appropriate to himself or herself what he or she is in charge of.”