In the eye of the storm

Despite repeated denials from party officials, a presidential source in Abuja familiar with the Halliburton bribe scandal confided in NEXT on Sunday Thursday that a significant portion of the $180million bribe went to funding the ruling People's Democratic Party [PDP]for the 2007 General elections.

A number of high level Nigerian government and party officials, including three heads of states, have been indicted in the multi- jurisdictional bribe scandal, orchestrated by the TSKJ consortium, in exchange for the award of the contract for the building of the $6billion Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas plant between 1994 and

The source disclosed that while the TSKJ consortium released $5million to Gaius Obaseki, a former Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, for onward passage to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Obaseki never directly delivered the money to the leadership of the party.

"Instead, the money was delivered to the presidency, which then issued cheques to the party from time to time," remarked our usually reliable source who sought anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case. The total amount eventually released to the party by the presidency is unclear.

A source close to former President Olusegun Obasanjo told us, on condition of anonymity, that in conversations he had with Mr. Obasanjo, the former president confirmed that Mr. Obaseki took the money and passed it to then presidential aide Bodunde Adeyanju.

According to the source, the money was used for campaigning, including according to Mr. Obasanjo, for President Yar'Adua's re election as governor of Katsina State in 2003. But according to our source, Mr. Obasanjo insists Mr. Obaseki didn't disclose the source of the funds, simply saying these are donations "from contractors."

Our source says, Mr. Obasanjo believes there is a plot, originating from the presidency; to link him to the Halliburton bribery scandal.

Two aides of Mr. Obasanjo have been quizzed regarding their role in the saga. Bodunde Adeyanju, a former Special Assistant to Mr. Obasanjo is believed to have managed the funds on behalf of the Presidency and made disbursements to the party in installments.

During the disagreement between Mr. Obasanjo and his then deputy, Atiku Abubakar, he was also named among those who mismanaged the funds of the Petroleum Trust Development Fund. Mr. Adeyanju reportedly withdrew ₦3billion from the trust fund deposit in the defunct Trans International Bank.

He did not deny the allegation at the time.

Lawal Batagarawa, a former Minister for State in the Ministry for Education has apparently admitted to investigators, the receipt of $250 thousand of the money, but could not give further insight into what happenned to the balance.

We did not get the money

But Audu Ogbeh, who was national chairman of the party at the time, insists that his team did not get the money and loudly called for a "thorough and open investigation." He also challenged Messrs Adeyanju and Obaseki to name party officials to whom they handed the money.

"If Halliburton gave them money for the PDP, let them name who they gave the money to. As for us, we had nothing to do with all the bribes they were giving and taking for contracts during the period. Obasanjo told us not to intervene in his government and we kept away. We were managing the crisis in the party, they were managing the cash," Mr. Ogbeh told NEXT on Sunday in Abuja.

"If the $5million was really meant for the party, why didn't the NNPC GMD bring it to the party directly?" he asked.

Mr. Ogbeh, however, confirmed that the party's national working committee under his leadership received funding from the presidency "from time to time," adding, nevertheless, that: "Obasanjo said he would devise a means of funding the party. So, occasionally, when we needed money, we contacted the presidency.

"Our treasurer will go to the villa and they will give him cheque. But nobody told us the source of the money. We were not told that it was proceeds of bribery." Mr. Ogbeh also said that he could not remember how much was passed to the party in that manner.

Mohammed Kareto, the PDP treasurer at the time could not be reached for comments on Mr. Ogbeh's claims, as his telephone lines were switched off for most of last week. But Vincent Ogbulafor, the party's national secretary at the time (now national chairman) corroborates Mr. Ogbeh, saying the Halliburton bribes were never given to the party.

"I can tell you without any reservation that if any such money was given at all, Ogbulafor did not know about it. He was never told that the Halliburton people gave the party money. Let them name those in the party who collected the money from them," Mr. Ogbulafor says through his spokesman, Chijioke Adindu.

Logistics of the bribe

The US Department of Justice and the Security and Exchange Commission, in separate indictment documents, named British Lawyer, Jeffery Tesler, hired by the TSKJ consortium to coordinate the bribery of Nigerian officials, as the agent who passed $5million to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, through Mr. Obaseki.

In June 2002, Messrs Tesler and Obaseki met in a London hotel to discuss the terms of the transfer.

Beginning from August 2002, Mr. Tesler wired $5million from the money he received from TSKJ to a bank account of his subcontractor in the United Kingdom. The subcontractor then transferred the money to a bank account in Nigeria.

Thereafter, as the money came in, the subcontractor withdrew cash in U.S dollars or in Naira, the local currency, and then delivered to Mr. Obaseki in his suite at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, where he was resident at the time.

United States, French, British and Nigerian investigators, who have so far worked on the Halliburton bribery, said the Peoples Democratic Party, "repeatedly and significantly" turned up in the inventory of "persons and entities" that benefited from the elaborate bribery scheme that characterised the building of Africa's largest NLNG plant.

On several occasions, Mr. Tesler's subcontractor personally hand-delivered $1million in US currency in a briefcase to the former NNPC boss. In April 2003, shortly before the flawed election that returned Mr. Obasanjo to a controversial second term in office, Mr. Tesler's agent delivered the remainder of the $5million bribe money in Naira to Mr. Obaseki, according to indictment documents available to Next on Sunday.

Because the Naira was too bulky to deliver by hand, the subcontractor loaded the cash into vehicles, which were then delivered to the former NNPC GMD at his hotel. The vehicles were left in the hotel's parking lot until Mr. Obaseki caused the money in them to be unloaded.

Presidency takes custody of PDP bribe money

Our source reasoned that in making returns to the Presidency rather than to the PDP as requested by Mr. Tesler and the TSKJ, Mr. Obaseki was trying to "proper a bond of honour with the Obasanjo presidency." The presidency then disbursed the funds to the national leadership of the party in bits and as occasion demanded, said our source.

Earlier in November 2001, Mr. Obasanjo had issued a strongly-worded directive to the National Working Committee of the PDP, then led by Audu Ogbeh, warning its members against receiving gifts or donations from government contractors. "Obasanjo said we should not solicit donations from contractors, that the Presidency would devise its own ways of funding the party," says a PDP chieftain who was a national official at the time.

"So whenever we run out of cash, we simply contact the presidency which gave us cheque from time to time."

NEXT on Sunday further learnt that the funds that were periodically disbursed to the party were part of the Halliburton bribery money that Mr. Obaseki remitted to the Presidency. A portion of the money, another source said, was spent on the presidential campaign for the 2003 election.

Mr. Obasanjo's campaign for that election was coordinated by Tony Anenih.

In what is clearly a confirmation of our findings, the presidential committee raised by President Umaru Yar'Adua to investigate the Halliburton bribery scam, last week arrested Bodunde Adeyanju, a former Special Assistant to Mr. Obasanjo.

The panel arrested Mr. Adeyanju reportedly following the claim by Mr. Obaseki that he passed the bribe meant for the PDP to the former presidential aide. In his statement to the panel, Mr. Adeyanju, who is still being detained, is said to have insisted that he passed the controversial $5million dollars to the PDP.

During Mr. Obasanjo's tenure, Mr. Adeyanju was among the presidential aides who acted as liaisons between the President and the leadership of the party.

Mr. Obasanjo could not be reached for comments as he and his Special Assistant, Taiwo Ojo, did not acknowledge the calls made to their mobile telephones for most of last week.

The Michael Okiro Panel investigating the involvement of Nigerian officials in the Halliburton scandal had not invited any PDP party official for questioning by late Friday.