Mohammed Abacha, son of Sani Abacha, the late former military head of state, has begun the process of challenging a judgment of the court of appeal which dismissed his bid to reclaim ownership of the OPL 245 oil well.
Abacha’s team of lawyers, led by Reuben Atabo, has filed a motion on notice at the court of appeal, seeking leave to formally appeal the May 23 judgment at the supreme court.
Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd had commenced a suit at the federal high court challenging the reallocation of oil prospecting licence (OPL) 245 oil well to Agip and Shell.
Agip’s legal team, led by Babatunde Fagbohunlu, filed a preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the federal high court on several grounds, including a claim that the suit was statute-barred, having been filed over five years after the said allocation.
On December 22, 2020, the trial court dismissed Agip’s preliminary objection against Malabu Oil’s case.
Parties then approached the appeal court for redress.
In a judgment delivered on May 23, 2025, a three-member panel of the appellate court nullified the ruling of the federal high court.
Hamma Akawu Barka, who led the panel of justices, held that the lower court had merely struck out the preliminary objection of Agip without resolving the issues it raised on fair hearing, abuse of court process, and the case being statute-barred.
The judge, in a unanimous three-man judgment, agreed “that the key issues highlighted by Agip were not pronounced upon or resolved by the lower court”.
He resolved this issue in favour of Agip and also held that the court action by Malabu Oil at the lower court was filed outside the three-month timeline stipulated for such matters.
Consequently, the appellate court “set aside” the federal high court’s judgment delivered by Binta Nyako.
In the motion filed on June 4, Malabu is asking the court of appeal for leave to appeal to the supreme court against the May 23 judgment on the grounds of mixed law and fact.
The motion is also seeking leave to raise new or fresh issues of law in the appeal to the supreme court concerning “grounds 1, 3, 4, 9, 14, 16 and 17 of the proposed notice of appeal”.
Edwin John, who deposed to the affidavit, stated that there are serious questions of law to be tried by the supreme court in the appeal arising from the May 23 judgment.
John further stated that “there is the likelihood and real possibility of the success of the appeal in the supreme court”.
He said it would be in the “interest of justice to grant this motion, especially as the respondents shall not in any way be prejudiced”.
He added that the course of justice would be better served if the motion were granted to enable the applicant to exercise the constitutional right of appeal against the May 23 decision.
John said the applicant would be permanently shut out from exercising the right of appeal if the motion is refused.
The younger Abacha is laying claim to the ownership of Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd, the company originally awarded the OPL in 1998 by the late Sani Abacha, his father.
In 2011, Shell and Eni paid $1.1 billion to acquire OPL 245 after Malabu relinquished its entire interest in the oil block.
This followed a settlement brokered by the Nigerian government to end a 10-year legal dispute on the acreage, which is considered to be one of the richest in Africa.
The oil companies also paid a signature bonus of $210 million to the Nigerian government.
However, activists launched an international campaign, alleging that the OPL 245 deal was fraudulent, arguing that the proceeds were used to bribe government officials.
Abacha also claimed that Malabu was not represented in the 2011 resolution agreements between the federal government, Shell Nigeria Ultra-Deep and Nigeria Agip Exploration.
When former President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015, his administration commenced litigation against Royal Dutch Shell, Eni/Nigeria Agip Exploration (NAE), Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep (SNUD) Ltd, and Shell Nigeria Exploration Company (SNEPCO) over the allegations.
On March 17, 2021, an Italian court acquitted Shell, Eni and all defendants of corruption charges in the $1.1 billion deal.
In April 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission also closed an investigation into the deal after it could not prove fraud or corruption.
In June 2022, Nigeria lost its $1.7 billion claim against JP Morgan Bank over the transfer of proceeds from the sale of the oil block to Malabu’s directors.
After several losses, the federal government, in November 2023, withdrew its $1.1 billion civil suit in Italian courts against Eni and Shell.
In March 2024, Mohammed Bello Adoke, who was the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice when the OPL 245 resolution agreement was signed in 2011, was discharged by a federal capital territory (FCT) high court over allegations of bribery and corruption in the transaction.
Adoke had alleged that the Abacha family was using the Buhari administration to persecute him because they believed they were short-changed in the OPL 245 deal.