A high-powered Nigerian delegation consisting of the Attorney General of the federation, Abubakar Malami; Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele; and Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu will leave Nigeria for the United Kingdom tomorrow.
The government delegation will hope to convince a British court that its judgement against Nigeria in a case filled by P&ID, a British Virgin Islands registered company with no track record is a scam.
The delegation will seek to ensure that the court aside an order permitting P&ID to seize $9.6 billion worth of assets from Nigeria, following the unavalability of its cash equivalent.
This is “about not allowing a case based on fraudulence to proceed,” Malami was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
CBN Governor, Emefiele has also warned of “advanced consequences for the Nigerian economy” if P&ID is allowed to seize Nigeria’s assets
President Muhammadu Buhari while speaking at the General Assembly of the United Nations on Tuesday, September 22, said the Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) contract with the Nigerian government was a “scam” aimed at cheating Nigeria of “billions of dollars”.
“We are giving notice to international criminal groups by the vigorous prosecution of the P&ID scam attempting to cheat Nigeria of billions of dollars,” Buhari said.
Media reports quoted government officials as saying the contract was signed while late president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was critically ill and Goodluck Jonathan was acting president. Jonathan has since denied any knowledge of the contract. The deal, a 20-year gas contract, was to build and operate a plant to refine natural gas into “lean gas” in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
The gas was being flared in the Niger Delta and the Nigerian government thought it was good business to have a company convert some of that wasted, poisonous gas into electricity in the face of Nigeria’s perennial power woes. The contract also stated that the government would install the necessary pipelines and infrastructure and receive the lean gas free of charge to power Nigeria’s fragile national grid, the company said.
Post Views: 702
