Ayeiroyin

Anglo-Dutch oil giant drawn into corruption probe that has dogged Italy’s Eni Italian prosecutors are investigating  Royal Dutch Shell  PLC’s involvement in a Nigerian oil deal, a person familiar with the matter said, drawing the oil company into a corruption probe that has dogged Italy’s energy giant  Eni  SpA. The prosecutors are investigating whether Shell’s piece of a $1.3 billion payment to acquire a rich oil field off the coast of Nigeria constituted a bribe, according to a person familiar with the probe. Italian and Dutch police last month raided Shell’s headquarters in The Hague looking for evidence that could be used in the case, the person said. Shell on Wednesday confirmed it had received “notice of proceedings” from Italian prosecutors in connection with the Nigerian oil block and that its offices had been “visited” recently by Dutch authorities. The Anglo-Dutch company said it is cooperating with the investigators and is looking into the allegation...

The Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the three tiers of government collectively owe the electricity distribution companies about N60bn. According to the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, the umbrella body of the firms, the Nigerian Army is the highest debtor, with over N15bn as of December 2015. The Executive Director, ANED, Mr. Sunday Oduntan, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday, and urged President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the matter, stressing that the debt had started weighing down the Discos heavily. He said, “The total amount of debt owed the power distribution companies by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the federal, state and local governments is about N60bn. As of December last year, the total debt was N58bn, but it has grown to about N60bn as we speak. “A large part of this debt is owed by the military. The Nigerian Army takes pleasure in beating up our staff for unjust reasons and they don’t like to pay their bills. We won’t c...