The Senate on Tuesday invited the attorney-general and minister for justice, Abubakar Malami, officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, to immediately appear before it to explain the state of the $9.6 billion judgment debt involving the country and an Irish firm, Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID).
The summons by the Senate followed a motion by Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (Ekiti Central, PDP).
Leading the debate, Bamidele said he was concerned about the judgment debt against Nigeria by an industrial court in the United Kingdom.
He asked the Senate to invite Malami and other relevant stakeholders in the judgment to brief committees of the Senate.
Consequently, the Senate approved the motion and ordered that Malami, Emefiele, officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as well as professional arbitrators to immediately appear and proffer comprehensive briefs on the matter.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan, while ruling on the motion, noted that it has become imperative for the government officials to interface with lawmakers and explain the circumstances on the judgment.
The contract for gas supply and processing (GSPA) was signed with P&ID by the administration of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
The company was to build gas processing facilities around Calabar, Cross River State, and the government was to supply wet gas up to 400 million standard cubic feet per day.
But P&ID sued the Nigerian government for breaching the agreement by failing to provide the gas – or install promised pipelines to the project site as agreed in the contract.
An arbitration tribunal in London had awarded the firm $6.6 billion (€5.9 billion) in damages in January 2017. P&ID said the accrued interest of $1.2 million a year had pushed that amount to more than $9 billion – about one-fifth of Nigeria’s declared foreign reserves of $45 billion.
SOLOMON AYADO, Abuja
