ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday grilled a senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Obla, on his role and that of four others in negotiating plea bargain for companies indicted in the Halliburton bribery scandal.
The other affected lawyers are – a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association(NBA), J. B. Daudu (SAN); Damian D. Dodo (SAN); E.C. Ukala (SAN); and Roland Ewubare.
The anti- graft agency had been tracing the whereabouts of the $200 million (N66 billion) penalty fines paid by five companies involved in the scandal.
The breakdown of the remittances by the five companies was as follows – Julius Berger ($35m); Siemens (Euros $30m); Snamprogetti ($30m); Halliburton Energy Services ($32,500,000); and Japan Gasoline Corporation ($26,500,000).
Also, the anti-graft agency may ask the lawyers who handled the settlement agreement to account for about $12 million (N3.96 billion) collected as “legal fees.”
Investigation revealed that Obla was invited for allegedly coordinating settlement terms and agreement with Siemens.
Credit: The Nation (Nigeria)
