Police indict HEDA Resource Centre chair over forgery and falsehood against former Attorney-General

Chairman of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), Mr. Olanrewaju Suraju, has been indicted of falsehood and cyberstalking by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) monitoring team in the probe of an allegation against a former attorney-general of the federation, Mr Mohammed Adoke.

Suraju was indicted following an investigation carried out by the IGP monitoring team in Abuja for circulating forged email and alleged telephone interviews of Adoke with respect to the massive bribery, which followed the sale of the controversial OPL 124 oil block, also known as Malabu in 2011 in a transaction between Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd, Shell and Eni.

Adoke was accused of using the email address of a company owned by one Aliyu Abubakar, who was on trial in Italy over the OPL 245 affair to confirm the financial transactions.

The email was intended to support the claim that there was corruption, alleging that Adoke and Abubakar worked together on the deal.

According to a letter seen by The Guardian which was addressed to Adoke on September 2, head of IGP monitoring team, Ibrahim Musa, said Suraju did not verify the phone tape and email before sharing on social media adding that the HEDA chairman’s act was a calculated attempt to resort to media trial and to falsify relationship.

He said: “A thorough investigation was carried out and in the course of the investigation, it was evident that Mr Olarenwaju Suraju of Human and Environmental Development Agenda -an unregistered organisation, without verifying the authenticity of the purported telephone interview and email proceeded to use the social media handle of HedaAgenda on Twitter and HedaResourceCentre on Facebook to disseminate.”

The statement added that when Suraju was invited by the Police to substantiate his claims, he feigned sickness, jumped bail and resorted to maligning the Police through press statements and filing civil suits in Court against the IGP Monitoring Unit, Force Headquarters, Abuja and the Police, aimed to undermine the investigation and to evade the course of justice.

Adoke had discredited the email, stating that he was no longer a minister when the mail was sent and had no reason to use another person’s e-mail address.

The former AGF also debunked claims of a phone conversation he had with an Italian journalist in 2017 where he was said to have acknowledged that the OPL245 deal was a scam.