Nigerians’ attention should be on Illegal OPL 245 oil deal — CLO

Civil Liberty Organisation (CLO) has said Nigerians should be worried and pay more attention to issues relating to fraudulent transaction on an oil block tagged, OPL 245 and ask who would want the former Minister of Justice and Attorney- General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Adoke, dead, following certain disclosures that he made about some top Nigerians that were involved in the deal.

CLO made the call in Lagos on Wednesday at a press conference it addressed, titled, “Who wants Adoke dead? We say no to ‘Bola Ige’ Treat for him.”

CLO Board member, Halima Ibraham, who spoke at the conference, said the concern of her group bordered on the recent interview granted by Adoke to an online media where he alleged that his life was in danger because some powerful interests who were involved in the said oil deal were bent on silencing him to cover their culpability.

Ibraham, who was flanked by the CLO president, Igho Akereshe; Michael Obokhale, Deputy Head, National Expansion, among others, while recalling with great sorrow, the brutal assassination of Chief Bola Ige, 15 years ago without the killers being apprehended, however, warned that Mr. Adoke must not come to the same tragic end as his predecessor.

Speaking on the invasion of residence of Adoke in Kano about a fortnight ago and the detention of many other Nigerians against court orders, Ibrahim said the CLO had watched with disbelieve how the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) had treated Nigerians to what she described as the “tragic- comedy of invading people’s homes without a court warrant as required by our laws.”

“At the end of the raid, in which it returned empty handed, the EFCC announced that it raided the house in search of document. It did not, however, say whether the document it was looking for was to be used in prosecuting Mr. Adoke or to serve other undeclared purposes.

“If the document was meant to serve prosecution purpose, it would, therefore, be suggested that the EFCC had no evidence on the basis of which to prosecute the Attorney- General. It means also that EFCC’s method is to arrest and arraign first, then investigate after. This is certainly against the letters and spirit of our laws,” she said.

“We make it clear that the CLO do not condone corruption and we are not here to comment on the merit of the case or to defend Mr. Adoke. If the EFCC has any credible evidence against the former Attorney- General, by any means, they should prosecute him. However, such should be done within the confines of the law,” she added.

Ibrahim, who is also the treasurer of CLO, expressed the commitment of the group to building a strong nation whose ethical values were the rule of law, justice, fairness and equity, but called on the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to stop what she called the “Baba Sala drama” and fight corruption in accordance with best global practices.

She also urged the administration to deconstruct the reign of terror and promote freedom, rule of law and democracy as well as obey court orders whether for or against the government, encourage Adoke and others like him to come out and unveil the cloak of whatever transpired in past governments and bring all perpetrators, whether big or small to justice, among others.