Halliburton: FG To Rake In 225m Dollars

The Minister of  Justice, Mr Mohammed Adoke (SAN), has last Wednesday in Abuja  said  225 million dollars would accrue to the country as settlement in the Halliburton scandal deal.

Adoke, also the Attorney General of the Federation, announced this while presenting  the ministry’s score card to newsmen.

He said a total sum of  95 million dollars had been recovered from two out of the four multinational companies involved in the scandal.

Adoke said  another tranche of  money totalling 180 million dollars was held in banks in Geneva and Monaco.

“By the time we recover that sum and the remaining companies pay up their agreed dues, the country would have recovered 225 million dollars from the scandal,’’ he said.

The country entered into a plea bargain settlement with the foreign companies over the 21 million dollars  bribe-for-contract scandal  in Nigeria.

“The country’s image has nosedived because of the illegitimate transactions and we thought that jerking up the figure would make the companies suffer some measure of discomfort  too.

“We had actually contemplated both criminal and civil charges against the perpetrators which could also have been grievous on them as well,” Adoke added.

The minister said  out of  the figure, Halliburton paid 35 million dollars while  Panalpina, a division of  Shell BP, paid 10 million dollars.

He stated that discussions had reached an advanced  stage for the Japanese oil and gas company involved in the scandal to remit its money to the country.

On the activities of the ministry in the year under review, Adoke said the ministry had assigned N1.037 billion for its capital projects.

He said N2.7 billion was assigned for the decongestion of  prisons across the country, adding that N2.8 billion was budgeted as solicitors’ fees.

The minister said  N8.9 billion was budgeted to offset judgment debts in the outgoing year.

Adoke stated that these sums in addition to amounts appropriated for other programmes and projects were released in various percentages by the Budget Office in the course of  the year.

“It is pertinent to acknowledge that these releases have largely been instrumental to the successes so far recorded by the ministry in the discharge of its statutory mandate,” he said.

Adoke  also said that the Department of  Public Prosecution handled a total of  453 cases.

He said  the Legal Aid Council received  2,539 requests for legal aid, saying that out of the figure,  2,116 were in relation to criminal matters while 423 were in respect of civil matters.

Adoke stated that the Council with the ministry’s assistance was able to mediate and complete 1,631 out of the entire request.

The minister, however, said that the legal officers in the federal public service required a special salary scale to improve their output.