The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) has taken over the investigation of the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) and two of its officials as ordered by a Chief Magistrate Court in Port Harcourt on March 2022.

The Interpol assumed the role on the orders of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba Alkali, in response to a petition by one of NLNG’s contractors, Macobarb International and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Shedrack Ogboru.

The non-availability of an investigative report either indicting or exonerating the NLNG and two of its officials from the Police stalled the continuance of a case of criminal proceedings against the company by Macobarb and Ogboru before Chief Magistrate, Blessing Vic-Jumbo.  

Macobarb International and its CEO, Shedrack Ogboru had sought the intervention of the IGP and Interpol based on alleged negligence by the Nigerian Police in Rivers State to complete an investigation they had started as ordered by a court.

According to Chief Magistrate Blessing Vic-Jumbo on March 15, 2022, the Rivers State Command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) failed to tender its report after asking the court severally for an extension of time to enable it submit the said report as ordered by the court to enable trial begin on the case.

She thus struck out the case with a proviso that when the police submit its report, trial would begin.

In striking out the case, the judge had said the condition for private prosecution was that the police must enter an indictment after an investigation, expressing her displeasure with the situation where every other party had done its part but the police still failed to do its part, pointing out that it was not the responsibility of the court to do the investigation.

Meanwhile, Macobarb’s CEO, Shedrack Ogboru was arrested on Friday, July 8, 2022 by the Police in pursuit of perjury charges brought against him by the NLNG for accusing them of crime and whisked away from his home in Port Harcourt to Abuja by truckloads of heavily armed police operatives.

Macobarb’s lawyers, however, fought back insisting that their client remains the accuser and not accused, stressing that the IGP’s order to Interpol to take over the investigation should rather be pursued, pointing out that investigation is not the duty of the Police Legal Unit, but prosecution, especially, in a matter that was still under investigation to determine the facts, whether true or not.

Macobarb has continued to claim that in executing the contract in 2014, that it acted on provisions given to them by the NLNG team and that they (Macobarb) gave away huge value in products and services to the NLNG, only to be told by the same NLNG through the officers being sued that those terms were no long tenable.

Sequel to this situation, the IGP ordered the Interpol to step in and determine the facts of the matter with a view to enabling the police reach a verdict that would be submitted to the court. It is believed that it is only after this stage and when the court has determined that the claims by Macobarb were lies that any aggrieved party can press charges of perjury.

Interpol officials are reported to have arrived Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital and have contacted all the persons mentioned in the court case to allow for independent investigation to be completed for the case to proceed, but sources hinted that the NLNG legal team appears not to be comfortable with the legality of the process, thus, the matter seemed stalemated.