By Ise-Oluwa Ige
ABUJA—THE much-awaited trial of some prominent politicians involved in the $180million Halliburton bribery scandal began, yesterday, at an Abuja Federal High Court, Maitama, with a request by the Federal Government to withdraw its case against six principal foreigners including a British solicitor, Mr Jeffrey Tesler, allegedly involved in the sharing of the bribe.

Although the Federal Government arraigned Mr. Bodunde Adeyanju, the former Special Assistant to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, before the court over alleged money-laundering offences in connection with the Halliburton bribery scandal, it, however, said it had discontinued the case against those who allegedly paid monies into Bodunde’s account.

No reason was given in court for the decision.

Jeffrey Tesler, who was on the earlier charge sheet filed by the Federal Government on September 3 this year, is now a free person.

A mulatto solicitor, Tesler was accused of acting as the middleman for an international conspiracy to funnel bribes, now a subject of litigation, to Nigerian officials.

He was alleged to have been hired by a consortium bidding for a series of contracts worth $6 billion to build and maintain a gas plant at Bonny Island.

He was also alleged to have paid $132 million in bribes to government officials to secure the gas contracts on behalf of the multinational energy firms.

The consortium allegedly included Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a Texas-based group that was formerly part of Halliburton, which was controlled by Dick Cheney until he became US Vice-President in 2000.

Notwithstanding that Tesler, from allegations, is a principal accused person in the deal, he needed not to come to the Nigerian high court in Abuja for trial again.

Besides, the Federal Government also formally withdrew the charge in the case against a multi-national construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and four others including George Mark, Hans George Christ, Heinrich J. Stockhausen and Bilfinger Berger GMBH. Chief Godwin Oblah, a private solicitor based in Abuja who is representing the Federal Government in the case announced the withdrawal of the charge against the sextet.

He said only Bodunde would, for now, face the criminal charge while another set of Nigerians who were also involved in the bribery would face a separate charge before an Abuja high court.

The said separate charge which he referred to is already in the public domain as the charge had already been filed.

But Vanguard can authoritatively report that many prominent names of members of the Nigerian political elite allegedly involved in the bribery scandal were not on the charge sheet.

FG amends charges

In the amended charge filed by the Federal Government and which was heard, yesterday, Bodunde is facing a six-count charge of receiving N748 million between 2002 and 2003 from one George Mark and another Hans George Christ.

The money is said to be part of the $180million Halliburton bribery.

Though Mark and Christ were mentioned in the body of the counts, they were not charged by the Federal Government. Indeed, of the six count charge filed by government in court, only one was repeated, word-for-word, three times while another was duplicated twice.

By implication, there were only three counts in the supposed six-count charge.  Bodunde had since entered a plea of not guilty to the duplicated charge. The trial high court judge, Justice Adamu Bello, granted him bail for N100million with one surety who must be resident in Abuja and who must depose to an affidavit of means.

The judge said he could not do otherwise in view of the nature of the offence pressed against him and the decision by the Federal Government not to oppose his bail request.

Justice Bello, however, ordered that Bodunde be remanded in prison if he failed to meet up with the bail conditions.

Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, SAN, authorized the withdrawal of the charge against the six principal accused persons in the case, citing his powers under section 174 of the 1999 constitution.

He said the Federal Government had concluded arrangement with top lawyers in the country who were well versed in criminal jurisprudence, including NBA President, Chief J B Daudu, SAN, to prosecute the case for the government. Adoke added that the government intended to file a civil action against

Halliburton Corporation in the United States to seek compensation and restitution within the next two weeks.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s aide, Bodunde, was very relaxed in court and when his case was called at 11:45 am, he bounced his way into the dock clutching a copy of the charge and a book titled Success Is Not By Accident written by Tommy Newberry.

A young, tall Bodunde dressed in a green Ankara, exuding courage, maintained different positions in the dock as his counsel, Mr. Aremu told the trial judge to allow his client go home on bail, saying the charge against his client attracted only two year jail term even if he was convicted with an option of just N250,000 fine.