From the Nigerian Guardian it appears, Julian Assange will have company on the Interpol wanted list.
An arrest warrant “will be issued and transmitted through Interpol,” said Godwin Obla, the prosecuting counsel at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Nigeria.
The on-going trial of Halliburton officials and their counterparts in Nigeria who allegedly conspired in the $180 million bribe for contract scandal may have reached feverish heights.
Reason: The Federal Government has preferred charges against former Vice President of the United States (U.S.), Mr. Dick Cheney, over his alleged complicity in the scandal.
Government has also resolved to charge Siemens and AGIP to court for their recalcitrance in spite of their alleged complicity in the scandal.
An impeccable government source told The Guardian that upon the resolution by government’s lawyers and the Attorney General of Federation (AGF), Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN) that Cheney could not be absolved of complicity in the bribery scandal since he was at that time of the bribery in 2006 the Chairman of Halliburton.
The country’s Chief Law Officer yesterday directed the lawyers to amend the charge sheets in the on-going trial of Nigerian and Halliburton officials to accommodate the charge of criminal conspiracy against him (Cheney).
UPDATE: From the Wall Street Journal Blog, Halliburton responds.
Obla told Bloomberg that charges will be filed against current and former chief executive officers of Halliburton and its former unit KBR Inc., Technip SA, EnI SpA and Saipem Construction Co., a unit of Eni. He didn’t identify the former officials whom he said held office when the alleged bribes were paid.
The alleged $180 million of bribes were connected to $6 billion in contracts with Nigeria LNG Ltd., whose largest shareholder is the state-owned petroleum company, to build liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, off the country’s southern coast. Technip, Snamprogetti SpA and KBR, along with Japan-based JGC Corp., formed a joint venture called TSJK to bid for the contracts.
Gianni Di Giovanni, an Eni spokesman, said the company “confirms its availability to co-operate with the local uthorities in the ongoing investigations, as it has done in the past with Italian and U.S. authorities” in an emailed statement. KBR had no comment.
Halliburton said in an email that the company has “never in any way been part of the LNG project” and “none of the Halliburton employees have ever had any connection to or participation in that project.”
