WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-11-30 Time: 12:00:02 Posted By: News Poster
By Joseph Ushigiale and Kingsley Nweze
Lagos and Abuja – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said employees of United States oilfield services group Halliburton arrested last week in a bribery case have been freed, but must stay in the country pending further investigations.
EFCC detained 10 Nigerian and expatriate Halliburton staff for questioning as well as one senior employee each from oil firms Saipem Contracting Nigeria Ltd and Technip Offshore Nigeria Ltd.
The arrests relate to a bribery case involving the U.S. firm’s former unit KBR. The companies split in 2007 and Halliburton has said it is not connected with the case.
Spokesman for the EFCC Femi Babafemi yesterday said the detainees, taken into custody last Thursday, had been released because under the law they could not be held for more than two days, but said they would remain in Nigeria until investigations had been completed.
“We can’t keep them for more than 48 hours. Their travel documents have been detained pending the investigation … they cannot leave the country,” Babafemi said.
Houston-based engineering firm KBR pleaded guilty last year to U.S. charges that it paid $180 million in bribes between 1994 and 2004 to Nigerian officials to secure $6 billion in contracts for the Bonny Island liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.
KBR and Halliburton reached a $579 million settlement in the US but Nigeria, France and Switzerland have conducted their own investigations into the case.
Halliburton said it was not involved in the LNG development, its employees have never participated in any work on the project and the EFCC raid last week had no legal basis.
It said its offices were ransacked and personnel assaulted during last week’s raid in what it described as “an affront against justice”.
“What we are doing is based on fresh information,” Babafemi said. “It is illogical to say we acted illegally. As long as the laws of the country are upheld there is nothing illegal in what we are doing.”
A former aide to Nigerian ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo pleaded not guilty in October to six counts of money laundering in relation to the case between 2002-2003, including accepting $1.5 million in bribes.
His case was adjourned to December 16.
Meanwhile, EFCC summoned the managing directors of Halliburton and Shell Petroleum, over the alleged involvement of their firms in the distribution of $180 million and $240 million bribes respectively.
Sources in the commission disclosed that formal letters of invitation for the two CEOs to appear at the EFCC head office in Abuja today were sent to the Nigerian head offices of the two companies in Lagos yesterday.
Operatives of the anti-graft agency had last week raided the two companies where about 21 of their expatriate and Nigerian top officials were arrested.
They were granted administrative bail over the weekend while their travel documents were seized.
Aside the invited CEOs of Shell and Halliburton, billed to appear also are the MDs of Technip and Saipem, both of who are linked to the Halliburton bribe scam in addition to four other expatriate officials of Panalpina and two from Halliburton.
With Agency Report
Original Source: 
Original date published: 29 November 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201011300681.html?viewall=1