It will take a judicial order by a United States District Court before the American government can release any information to Nigeria on its investigation into $180m Halliburton scandal.
According to the Empowered Newswire reports, the US authorities will have to be convinced that the Nigerian government has, indeed, opened a criminal investigation into the matter before taking steps to provide the needed information on the Nigerians involved and the evidence against them.
Officials at the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC on Wednesday could not confirm the receipt of the much-publicised request to the US Attorney-General Eric Holder. The request was reportedly made by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Michael Aondoakaa.
The officials also could not confirm the visit of Aondoakaa to the US Department offices in Washington, DC. But Nigerian Embassy officials said the minister was in the city on Sunday and left on Monday night.
One of the officials, Ian Mccaleb, however, said he would not rule out the receipt of such a request, adding that if it was received, the department would conduct a review of such request and take a decision.
Sources also explained that Nigeria and the US had signed a Mutual Legal Assistance, which could be used to facilitate the request of the Nigerian government for information on Nigerians involved in the Halliburton scandal.
According to the sources, the US Justice Department is not currently favourably disposed to sharing the information with Nigeria because of the perception that the Federal Government has slowed down considerably from the pursuit of its anti-corruption campaign.
In fact, in the investigation of the corruption involving Halliburton and its subsidiaries like KBR, the American investigators left out Nigeria in their international investigation while cooperating openly with their counterparts in the United Kingdom, France. Italy and Switzerland.
Of all the countries involved in the probe, only the Nigerian authorities are left out in the international efforts to unravel the scandal.
Observers say this is a reflection of the perception of the US Justice Department on the political will of the Nigerian government to show serious interest.
However, with what seems to be a renewed interest of the Nigerian government with the letter sent to the Justice Department, sources said the US government will review the request and take a decision.
As it was explained to Empowered Newswire, if the department determines to assist Nigeria to provide the identities of the Nigerians involved and other relevant information and evidence, it (department) will then proceed to a US Court to ask for a release for the government to share the information.
Such a request will be based on the MLA treaty between the Nigerian and the US governments. It was also explained that other legal basis exists, including the United Nations Convention on Corruption, to which Nigeria and the US have both signed.
However, the sources said if the US government was not convinced that the Nigerian government was serious and did not receive sufficient evidence that a criminal and public investigation of the matter had been opened in Nigeria, the Justice Department would not bother to ask a US Court to order the release of the evidence or sharing of information.
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