Italian prosecutors have named former President Goodluck Jonathan and Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who served under his administration as Minister of Petroleum Resources, among those who allegedly received kickbacks in the controversial $1.3bn oil block deal involving oil giants ENI and Royal Dutch Shell.
According to AFP, Italian prosecutors, in court documents filed late last months in Milan, claimed that the Chief Executive of ENI, Claudio Descalzi, and his predecessor, Paolo Scaroni, met Jonathan “in person” to thrash out the deal, which also involved former British intelligence agents working as advisors for Shell.
The prosecutors alleged that Jonathan and Diezani benefitted from a sum of $466m converted into naira and used to grease the palms of some Nigerian government officials to facilitate the alleged shady deal.
The prosecutors alleged that another $54m was withdrawn by one Abubakar Aliyu, whom the prosecutors described as an “agent” of Jonathan.
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