Contrary to speculations in the media that the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission was set to prosecute former
Vice-President of United States, Dick Cheney, over the multi-million
dollar Halliburton bribe scandal, the Commission has said that it is
unlikely that Cheney will be charged.
The Commission’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, on Monday told THE PUNCH that though the
Commission was investigating the Halliburton scandal, it had not found
any evidence that might warrant charging Cheney for any corruption
offence.
“Yes, we are investigating the Halliburton bribery scandal and I told some foreign media so. But so far we have
not uncovered any evidence of Dick Cheney’s complicity to warrant
bringing charges. In fact, there is a remote chance that we will charge
him,” Babafemi said...
He said whatever the Commission uncovered in its investigations would be made public.
Local and international media had been awashed with reports that the EFCC was
planning to charge Cheney for alleged involvement in the $180m scandal.
The EFCC last week raided Halliburton’s office in Nigeria and invited
several of its senior employees for questioning. One senior employee
each from Saipem Contracting Nigeria Ltd and Technip Offshore Nigeria
Ltd were also questioned by the EFCC along with the 10 Halliburton staff
arrested during the last week’s raid...
Halliburton is being investigated for allegedly bribing prominent Nigerian officials
with over N27b to facilitate winning of the contract to build the
Nigerian Liquefied Gas plant in Bonny Island, Rivers State by its
consortium, TSKJ. The bribery saga was said to have spanned over 20
years and allegedly involved even some heads of states and their
cronies.
But Halliburton said last year that it had “reason to believe” payments may have been made to Nigerian officials by
agents of its TSKJ consortium, which built the Bonny Island facility.
Albert “Jack” Stanley, a former KBR [Kellog, Brown and Roots] chief executive
officer who had worked under Cheney when he headed Halliburton, pleaded
guilty in 2008 to charges stemming from a scheme to bribe Nigerian
officials for work on the Bonny Island plant.
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