By Tosin Olatokunbo
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malmi, SAN has attributed the award of $200 million to the federal government by a British court in the ongoing litigation with Process & Industrial Development, P&ID Limited, P&ID, to the diligence in which the case has been prosecuted so far by his office, after it took over from the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC.
Ibrahim Magu, the suspended Chairman of the EFCC currently facing a presidential panel over a corruption allegation against him by the AGF had credited the Commission with the turn-around being experienced by the government in the case, after an initial fine slammed on the federal government for allege contract breach with the British firm.
The United Kingdom court hearing the case, on Monday directed the firm to provide a bank guarantee in the said sum to the federal government pending when judgment will be delivered on the matter.
Recall that the Buhari administration filed an application seeking permission to challenge the $9.6 billion arbitration award obtained by the firm based in the British Virgin Islands against Nigeria over allege contract breach.
Spokesperson to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Dr. Umar Gwandu, in a statement commend the ruling where Justice “Cranston J ordered P&ID to make an interim payment of more than £1.5 million within 21 days to cover legal costs the FRN incurred as part of their successful application for the extension of time to challenge the arbitration award and procedural hearing earlier in the year.”
Malami stated that he’s particularly happy that the London court ordered the release of the $200million guarantee to the Nigerian government.
“We are glad having this victory in addition to multiple successes recorded so far,” the AGF said adding that the judgment on Nigeria’s cases against P&ID demonstrated an outcome of strong commitment and determination of the federal government through his office to tackle fraud, corruption, and non-compliance with the due process.
The nation’s chief law officer noted that the case has experienced a turn around since it was taken over from the anti-graft agency which has accused the AGF of frustrating the prosecution of high profile cases in the country.
According to Malami “Since the time the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice took over the coordination of the case, it has been a matter of success upon success.
“Success was equally recorded for having an order for the extension of time to challenge award and agreement. Nigeria was successful as the court awarded payment of legal cost of £1.5million in favour of the country. The Court ordered release of bank guarantee in favour of the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
“Nigeria obtains multiple positive rulings to obtain information from banks abroad which helped in establishing fraud,” he stated.
The AGF further noted that Nigeria also got an award of £70,000 as further legal cost relating to the issue.
The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday, hailed the victory recorded by the federal government in the legal tussle with P&ID after a London Commercial Court, presided over by Justice Christopher Butcher, ordered the release of $200 million guarantee as part of the stay of execution application filed by the Nigerian government.
