The Federal Government will head to court to challenge the $9.6bn slammed on Nigeria by a UK court in favour of a British engineering firm, Process & Industrial Development Limited (P&ID), over a gas deal violation, once it is able to establish some element of fraud in that deal.
The Federal Government had announced that it would appeal the judgment, but is now exploring options, including asking the court to set aside the deal, because outcomes of investigations so far already point to some pre-determined plans to defraud the country before the contract was even made.
Already, there is an extensive investigation on everyone that played a role in the failed contract to establish where there was a criminal conspiracy, Abubakar Malami, minister for justice and attorney-general of the federation, told a press meeting on Sunday.
President Buhari had directed Malami to mandate the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to conduct a thorough investigation into the company, the circumstances surrounding the agreement and the subsequent event, which includes commencing a full-scale criminal investigation.
“There is indeed investigation being intensively and extensively carried out by agencies of government and it is wholehearted, borderless, and there are no limitations as to who and who can be invited for questioning or not,” Malami stated while addressing the press.
He was not specific on personalities being investigated but stated “categorically that those that were involved in the process of drafting the agreement, signing and executing, conduct of arbitration before the arbitral panel, in the conduct of trial before the Federal High Court relating to a subsequent case that was filed and all other personalities of interest, local and international, are indeed being investigated to get to the bottom of what indeed transpired for the purpose of establishing the existence or otherwise of fraud and fraudulent conspiracies between or among the parties”.
He said it was clear from all indications that the so-called contract was a well-organised scam consciously, deliberately and intentionally orchestrated by some dubious and well-placed Nigerian government officials at the time with some shrewd foreign collaborators to defraud Nigeria and inflict heavy economic and financial loss on Nigeria and its people.
“And for your information and legally speaking, fraud could be a ground for setting aside an award without necessarily having to go through the process of seeking for leave,” he said.
Speaking on whether there was even a window which the Buhari administration could have explored to negotiate before things got out of hand, Malami said as at the time the present government came in, the time for a possible appeal or even to get the deal set aside had already elapsed.
“There was no time for us to appeal because the previews administration had not appealed against the judgment and against the award when it was made in June 2014. So we could not have filed an application to either set aside the award or to stay execution. You require the leave of the tribunal to appeal the award and Nigeria could have been adjudged to have slipped over its right,” he said.
Malami said the only available option then was that of negotiations which government accommodated – but that along the line, there were factual revelations, including those which strongly suggested possibility of fraudulent underhands amongst the parties involved.
“So if you can establish fraud, there is no time limit within which you can raise it as against appealing the award of the decision of the tribunal on the basis of law or facts,” he said.
“When fraudulent insinuations manifest arising in the course of the engagement, it is only logical that Nigeria should have a consideration for investigation as relating to the fraudulent elements which could have afforded the country an opportunity to have the entire award set aside if fraud can now be established,” he said.
Reacting to concerns that there was lack of diligent prosecution by the current administration, Malami explained that as at 2015, there was a contract in existence having been executed, an award in existence, and there were already lawyers engaged by both parties, stating in essence that there was “a purported contract, a purported award, parties were in court before the tribunal”.
He, however, noted that the government also made effort to strengthen the legal consortium that was already in place and got in some lawyers and that “if indeed and in fact, any case was at any point struck out, the implication is that it was at a time when lawyers employed by the previous administration were handling the matter”.
“Those who are clapping for P&ID and blaming the Buhari administration for the huge $9.6 billion slammed on the country as a result of the so-called Gas Supply and Processing Contract awarded the firm on January 11, 2010, five years before President Buhari came to power and I became minister, should be kind enough to ask those who awarded the ‘so-called contract’ what it was all about and why there was no attempt by either those who awarded the contract and the contractor to implement even an aspect of it,” he said.
“Nigerians should also ask the PDP government that awarded the contract why it was given to a company whose address is C/O of a lawyer’s office: Trident Chambers, P.O Box 146, Tortola, British Virgin Island, and that means the company does not have an office of its own and has no record of executing any project of any kind close to what it was awarded in Nigeria,” he said.
He said the questions to further ask include in whose interest the critical contract was awarded and what it was to achieve; why the centre of arbitration was taken to London, and not Nigeria, a sovereign nation; why the contract was not passed unto the Federal Ministry of Justice for vetting; and why the Federal Executive Council’s approval was not sought in the execution of the agreement.
He said it would also be good to know whether there was any direct capital inflow arising from the contract and why NNPC, NPDC and IOCs who were to have supplied the gas component of the agreement were not made parties to it.
“Clearly, the Nigerian government will not sell out the interest of the country and the Nigerian people in order to satisfy some elements who are consciously out to extort the Nigerian people for their selfish aggrandizement,” he said.
“It is to be noted that while we are willing and ready to negotiate and meet the terms of agreements reached with all genuine investors who have done business or are still doing business with Nigeria on mutually beneficial terms, we will not allow fraudulent local and foreign collaborators to rip off the resources of Nigeria for no just cause in order to be seen as being nice or ‘investor-friendly’,” he further said.
ONYINYE NWACHUKWU, Abuja
