Posted by By Clara Nwachukwu on
Indications emerged on Monday that a business mogul, Dr. Mike Adenuga, could be under pressure to implicate the Presidency in an oil block contract.
Indications emerged on Monday that a business mogul, Dr. Mike Adenuga, could be under pressure to implicate the Presidency in an oil block contract.
Sources said Adenuga called a top Presidency staff at the weekend to complain that he was under pressure from the camp of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar to allege that he paid President Olusegun Obasanjo bribe for the oil block.
Conoil Producing Nigeria, owned by Adenuga, had bid for two oil blocks out of the 77 put on sale by the Department of Petroleum Resources for the 2005 Bid Round.
Conoil emerged winner for Oil Mining Leases 471 and 257 both in the deep offshore, which attracted a minimum selling price of $50m per block.
Confirming the bids, the Director, DPR, Mr. Tony Chukwueke, told our correspondent on Monday that Conoil later withdrew from OML 471, but paid the signature bonus of $100m for OML 257.
He, however said, 'I am not aware of any bribery from any quarter in respect of the sale of the oil blocks, because the bid was conducted in an open and commercial process," adding that the OML 471 had since been sold to China Petroleum Corporation.
A spokesman for Adenuga, who preferred to speak anonymously, said he had no knowledge on any oil block deal involving his boss.
He said that there was "so much confusion in the amount of information coming out that it was difficult to separate facts from falsehood."
Efforts to get reaction from the vice-president's camp were unsuccessful. Calls to the cell phone of one of his media aides, Dr. Deolu Akande, and a text message to the phone were unanswered.