By Godwin Oritse
ABUJA- FORMER Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Mashall A.D. Bello,has denied media reports of his involvement in the Halliburton bribery scandal.
The former Air chief stated that one of the major players in the scandal, Mr. Jeffery Tesler, has written to clear his (Bello) names as he was erroneously mentioned in the scandal .
Mr. Jeffery Tesler, who is serving jail term in the United States, sent an e-mail to clear AVM Bello of any involvement when the issue relating to prosecuting the principal suspects came up in Nigeria and US.
The Halliburton bribery tale has been a worrisome issue since it broke in 2003, following an investigation of KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, over payments to a range of high profile Nigerian officials in the executive, NNPC and the NLNG.
The sum of $180 million was involved over a contract estimated to worth about $6 billion. Kellog, Brown and Root, KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary that got the job, was part of a four-company joint venture on the project.
The company has already pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a fine of $520 million.
