The federal government on Saturday seized a private jet belonging to Dan Etete, a former minister of petroleum, allegedly involved in the $1.1 billion Malabu oil deal.
According to Financial Uncovered, Babatunde Johnson, whose firm, Johnson & Johnson Solicitors, was appointed by the Nigerian government in 2016 to recover assets from the OPL 245 deal, said the the government had been on the trail of the Bombardier 6000 jet, with tail number M-MYNA, since it landed in Montréal-Trudeau International Airport in Canada on May 29.
According to the website, the jet had just flown from Dubai via Shannon Airport in the west of Ireland, and it is not known whether any passengers were on board.
On Saturday, a court in the province of Quebec reportedly granted a seizure order for the aircraft, and was served on Tibit Ltd, the company which owns it.
Tibit Ltd, an anonymously owned company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, is said to have been given June 9 to oppose the court order.
According to Johnson, the jet, had been grounded in Dubai for the past four years, where it had been closely monitored.
Johnson told the publication, “Our investigators in Dubai then noticed that the jet, having been grounded in Dubai for so long, suddenly did some test flights and even went up to a cruising altitude for a short while. It seemed like they were testing whether they could fly somewhere.”
“The jet then took off from Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai, mid-morning on Friday. We did not know the destination at that point.
“We now suspected that it was being flown to Canada for a major service, pending a possible sale.
“We had just a few hours to get a legal team in place on the ground there in Canada to file the injunction. It was 3am in Nigeria when I made a statement to the judge via video link.”
Etebe was minister of petroleum from 1995 to 1998 during the Abacha dictatorship.
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