P&ID: FG Employs Foreign Lawyers, Begs UK For Help

By Bayo Bernard

On September 26, the Nigerian government got a respite on the $9.6BN fine slammed on the nation by a British court over breach of contract with P&ID, an Irish engineering firm.

The respite, the magazine learned was due to the powerful delegation from Nigeria, which included top diplomats and senior lawyers to United Kingdom.

By last weekend, the magazine learned that the federal government is upbeat about setting aside the judgment, which the Buhari government said, if implemented could impoverish hoards on Nigerians.

It has therefore, assembled qualified local and international finance and contract lawyers to represent Nigeria at the appeal.

“Most of our lawyers will be drawn from those that really understand the British jurisprudence. It’s a mix of Nigerian and British attorneys versed in contractual matters,” a Foreign Affairs Ministry official told the magazine on Saturday.

On Wednesday last week, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed disclosed in Abuja that the judgment was a scam and that everything will be done by the government to set it aside.

Mohammed explained that the September 10 judgment cannot stand in the face of glaring evidence that the owners of P&ID were only trying to cheat Nigeria.

The company without a physical address and no known investment anywhere in the world has set out to dupe Nigeria from day one, with the connivance of unpatriotic, corrupt and greedy Nigerians, the minister said.

Mohammed vowed that the Buhari administration, as part of its fight against graft will not allow this to happen, promising that all Nigerian collaborators will be fished out and tried.

The minister outlined the grounds in which the federal government plans to fortify its appeal.

“A contract of this magnitude cannot be valid until it has been vetted by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and taken to the Federal Executive Council for approval. None of these was done.

“The sham contract was also signed in contravention of the Bureau of Public Procurement Act and the Infrastructure Regulatory Commission Procurement Act.

“While the MoU for the project was signed in 2009 by P&ID Nigeria Limited and the Nigerian government (Ministry of Petroleum Resources), a ‘trick’ clause dubiously inserted in the MoU was curiously activated.

“The clause allowed British Virgin Island (BVI)-registered P&ID to replace the original contractual party, P&ID Nigeria Limited, to sign the contract on Jan. 11 2010. P&ID, incorporated in BVI, is a shell company that has no history of any business except the phantom GSPA in Nigeria.”

Apart from these, Mohammed said the government has discovered that two other companies, who are supposed to be part of the contract were not aware of its existence.

According to him, the gas for the project was expected to come from OML 67 operated by ExxonMobil and OML 123 operated by Addax but none of the two companies was aware of the agreement.

The agreement was not also in the 2010 budget, he said.

The minister said “For such a supposedly important project, there was no budgetary provision for the implementation of the GSPA in the budget of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in 2010.”

He added that P&ID was not known to Nigeria extant laws, while the firm has no tax payment record in the country.

He explained that two directors of the company  mohammed Kuchazi and Adamu Usman were felons, convicts of money laundering charges.

The minister said suspicious transfers of funds were made to some civil servants to make sure that the contract sailed through, among those that allegedly received bribe, he stated is one Grace Taiga, the Legal Director in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources

“Taiga was supposed to ensure that the interest of the country was adequately protected.

Of course, the payment, transferred in three tranches, could only have been made in appreciation of the ‘good deed’ done to P&ID by Taiga.

Also, billions of Naira in suspicious cash transfers were made by P&ID,” Mohammed said.

It was learned that the President Buhari government has continued in its effort to reach out to its British and Irish counterparts to intervene in the matter.

Other European nations who have diplomatic relations with Nigeria, have also been consulted over the issue, The Source was told by competent sources from Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

A British industrial court had early September delivered a judgment which experts warn could lead to the expropriation of Nigerian assets abroad worth over N3 trillion.

No sooner after the judgment, P&ID said it was prepared to seize Nigerian assets abroad worth the fine.

Bu the federal government has said it disagreed with the judgment which it described as a scam.

Thus following the notice of appeal filed by the federal government, the British court gave a 60 day window within which the appeal should be files.

The court however, directed that the Nigerian government to pay $200million before the appeal could be heard.