The Chief Executive Officer of Lenoil Nigeria Limited,Mr. Laitan Adesanya, was last Friday arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for his alleged role in the $115m (N23bn) bribe funds allegedly used to bribe some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission before the 2015 presidential election by the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP). Adesanya was alleged to have handed $1.85m to the Managing Director(MD) of Fidelity Bank based on the instruction of a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke. Other companies, which allegedly handed over money to the bank MD, included Northern Belt Gas Company Limited ($60m); Auctus Integrated ($17.8m); and Midwestern Oil and Gas ($9.5m). According to the United Kingdom Financial Times, Adesanya is an international oil businessman, who has been in the business for decades. The newspaper states that Adesanya made huge profits during the military administrations of the 1980s and 1990s.
