The Federal Government has linked the contract which led to
a judgement debt of $9.6billion(N3.5trillion) to the administration of
ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.
President Buhari has now ordered the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC), the National Intelligence Agency(NIA) and the
Inspector-General of Police to probe the criminal conspiracy behind the failed
contract.
The government said the contractor, Pocess and Industrial
Developments Ltd. (P&ID) did not execute the contract. The government made
the clarifications at a joint briefing in Abuja by the Minister of Information
and Culture, Alh. Lai Mohammed alongside the Minister of Justice, Abubakar
Malami(SAN), the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed and the Governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.
Mohammed said: “We have invited you here today to brief you
on the recent judgement of a UK Court authorizing Process and Industrial
Developments Ltd. (P&ID) to seize 9.6 billion dollars in Nigerian assets,
over a contract entered into by the company and the Ministry of Petroleum
Resources in 2010. We will quickly run you through the issues at stake as well
as what the Nigerian government is doing to stave off any seizure of its
assets.
We do hope that by the time we conclude this briefing, the
media would have been better informed on
the whole issue, hence will be better placed to inform Nigerians and
clear the misrepresentations in certain circles.
“The judgement that was delivered on Friday, 16 August 2019 is a fallout of the contract
purportedly entered into in 2010 between the Federal Ministry of Petroleum
Resources and P&ID. Please note that in the 20-year Gas Supply Processing
Agreement (GSPA) purportedly entered
into with the P&ID in 2010, the company never performed as agreed.”
Malami also added that the ”contract was designed ab initio
to fail. We investigating the criminal conspiracy".
