Nigeria Content Online

A
new episode in the saga of underhand dealings between senior Nigerian
officials and Pfizer over the battle to get justice for children in
Kano who suffered physical and mental impairment when the
pharmaceutical company administered a trial drug on them continues with
the release of some US diplomatic cables related to the incident by
Wikileaks.

NEXT had published
several reports on the challenges facing the Trovan victims and their
families in their quest to receive compensation from the multinational
drugs company, as well as the involvement of senior members of
government and others determined to deny them their due.

A cable posted by
Wikileaks has detailed how Pfizer officials sought to blackmail former
Attorney General of the Federation, Mike Aondoakaa, into dropping the
Federal Government’s lawsuit against the company over the 1996 Trovan
clinical trial in Kano.

Mr Aondoakaa faces
several allegations of corruption. A team of government lawyers, Pfizer, and the Ministry of Justice has so far refused to
disclose the terms of the secret agreement finalised in October 2009,
saying the settlement was covered by a confidentiality clause.

In an April 20,
2009 cable, then U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders, informed
Washington that Pfizer hired investigators to uncover Mr Aondoakaa’s
corruption and then discreetly passed the results of the investigations
to the local media for publication.

She said the former
minister buckled and agreed to withdraw the case after the unceasing
damaging reports on him became too much for him to bear.

The cable said, in
parts: “In follow up to the April 2 meeting, EconDep (Department of
Economic Affairs at the US embassy) met with Pfizer Country Manager
Enrico Liggeri in Lagos on April 9. (Note: Liggeri has years of
experience in Nigeria because his family operated a business in Lagos
from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. He spent most of his childhood
in Lagos. End Note.) “Liggeri said Pfizer was not happy settling the
case, but had come to the conclusion that the $75 million figure was
reasonable because the suits had been ongoing for many years costing
Pfizer more than $15 million a year in legal and investigative fees.

According to
Liggeri, Pfizer had hired investigators to uncover corruption links to
Federal Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa to expose him and put
pressure on him to drop the federal cases.

“He said Pfizer’s
investigators were passing this information to local media. A series of
damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa’s “alleged” corruption ties were
published in February and March.

“Liggeri contended
that Pfizer had much more damaging information on Aondoakaa and that
Aondoakaa’s cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of
further negative articles.”

Dealing of heavyweights

The pharmaceutical
giant in its reaction to the leaked diplomatic cable dismissed the
claim that it hired investigators to uncover evidence of corruption
against Mr Aondoakaa, saying it is ‘preposterous.’ The company claimed
“it negotiated the settlement last year with the federal government of
Nigeria in good faith and its conduct in reaching the agreement was
proper.”

However, contrary
to Ms Sanders account, NEXT has learnt that the decision to drop the
charges was based more on greed and insensitivity to the plight of the
victims by all the parties involved in the negotiation, than on any
fear that Mr. Aondoakaa’s dirty deals would be exposed.

Sources also
explained how some eminent Nigerians participated in the sharing of
what was described as “blood money” by late president Umaru Yar’Adua,
in the name of collecting legal fees.

Watch out for a detailed report on this.

Editor’s Note: Earlier today, we incorrectly identified Maryam Uwais as the lawyer that led the government team in the Pfizer negotiations. The error is regretted.