Nairametrics| Once again, Malabu Oil has taken the Federal Government (FG) and other entities to court over the illegal restructuring and transfer of its shares to unauthorized people. Son of former military Junta Gen. Sani Abacha, Mohammed, approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking it to declare him and a firm, Pecos Energy Ltd, as genuine owners of Malabu Oil & Gas Limited. This based on their prayer will declare the sale of OPL 245 illegal thus reverting the controversial oil bloc sold to Shell and Eni in 2011, back to them.
What Abacha Is Claiming
- Abacha is claiming that him and Pecos Energy Ltd jointly owned 70% of Malabu Oil Ltd and never divested their stake at any time.
- They also claimed that as “owners” of Malabu, they never authorised the government to reallocate the oil block to Shell and Agip without the consent of Malabu Oil (which they claim to own 70%)
- They also want the court to declare illegal, null and void the “purported” transfer of 10,000,000 shares belonging to Abacha to one Seidougha Munamuna and 6,000,000 shares of one Kweku Amafagha (first defendant) to Amaran Joseph (third defendant), and Hassan Hindu’s 4,000,000 shares to the same Amaran Joseph as illegal
- They claim the transfer was made without the consent, knowledge and authority of the second and Pecos Energy Ltd.
- And then for the jugular, they are also claiming that since they never surrendered ownership of their shares in Malabu, the allocation of Malabu Oil’s titles, rights and interest in OPL 245 to a consortium of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited and Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (Eni) under a resolution agreement dated 30th April, 2011 is null and void.
The result of these demands, if granted by the Court, would mean that the agreement made between the Federal Government of Nigeria, Shell Nigeria, Nigeria Agip Exploration and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) would not hold water as it did not have shareholder authorization. This is a further twist in an ever-ending saga that has now expanded investigations in Nigeria, UK and Italy. Last week, a Federal High Court in Abuja reversed its decision to grant EFCC and the Government operating rights over OPL 245.
