$9bn UK Penalty: FG vows to Prosecute all persons linked with contract
The Federal Government has vowed to prosecute everyone linked with the contract that resulted in the judgment of the United Kingdom, Business and Property Courts (the Commercial Court) which awarded a cumulative sum of $9bn against Nigeria.
The commercial court awarded the sum in favour of a private firm, Process and Industrial Developments Limited recently.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, announced the decision of the government to prosecute those involved on Thursday at a news briefing in Abuja.
He said, “The Federal Government strongly views with serious concerns, the underhand manners by which the negotiation, signing, and formation of the contract was carried out by some vested interests in the past administration in connivance with their local and international conspirators, all in the bid to inflict grave economic adversity on the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the good people of Nigeria.”
Mr Malami questioned the sincerity of those behind the contract awarded in 2010 and alleged that it formed part of the inglorious legacies of past administrations.
He also decried the situation where the Muhammadu Buhari administration was made to grapple with the problems created by the previous administration.
The minister, however, stated that henceforth, contract of certain categories would be vetted by the Federal Ministry of Justice before being signed by any government agency.
He also expressed concerns about the impact of public corruption and the connivance of financial institutions in the thriving crime of illicit finance flow out of the country.
“As a government that has the mandate of the people and their interest at heart, we shall not fold our arms and allow this injustice to go unpunished,” Malami said.
He added, “All efforts, actions, and steps shall be taken to bring to book all private individuals, corporate entities, and government officials; home and abroad, past and present that played direct and indirect roles in the conception, negotiation, signing, formation, as well as prosecution of the purported agreement.”
Recall that under the agreement, Nigeria was to receive 85 per cent of the refined non-associated gas, free of charge, for power generation and industrialisation. P&ID would receive the remaining 15 per cent and the by-products – namely methane, propane and butane – which it would export.
Nigeria would also benefit from the export proceeds through its 10 per cent stake in P&ID. As in all agreements, there are obligations on both parties: the Nigerian government was to supply 150 million standard cubic feet (scf) of gas per day to the plant. This was to rise to 400 million scf in the life of the project. The gas was otherwise being flared by the oil-producing companies.
But there was an initial obligation on the country; the GSPA required the government to build a gas supply pipeline to the P&ID facility to be located in Adiabo, Odukpani LGA, Cross River state. The gas was to be sourced by the government from OMLs 67 and 123 operated by Addax Petroleum.
Nigeria did not build the pipeline. P&ID said it had spent about $40 million on the project and the failure of Nigeria to build the gas pipeline had breached the agreement. The crisis went unresolved and in August 2012, the company activated the arbitration clause, filing a case of breach of contract against Nigeria in London.