By Adedapo Adesanya
Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, on Thursday said the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan was responsible for the tumult that led to the award of $9 billion against Nigeria by a British court for contract violation.
Mr Malami, who was reappointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as the country’s attorney-general, said this while assuming office on Thursday.
He pointed fingers at the Goodluck Jonathan-led government for “conniving with local and International conspirators in a bid to inflict grave economic adversity on the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the good people of Nigeria.”
Mr Malami described the ruling as a sad one and the “consequences of the underhand dealings of the past administration”.
According to him, “Sadly, in spite of the spirited and concerted efforts of the current administration to combat corrupt practices and rent-seeking in all its forms, Nigerians woke up on Friday, August 16, 2019, to the rudest consequences of the underhand dealings of the past administration that has resulted in the award of $9 billion against the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by a British court which ruled that Process and Industrial Development Limited had the right to seize $9 billion in Nigerian assets.”
“As a government that has the mandate of the people, and their interests at heart, we shall not fold our arms and allow this injustice to go unpunished as all efforts, actions and steps shall be taken to bring to book all private individuals, corporate entities and government officials – home or abroad and past or present – that played direct and indirect roles in the conception, negotiation, signing, formation as well as prosecution of the purported agreement,” Mr Malami said.
He added that “the dispute that led to the arbitration between the Federal Government of Nigeria and P&ID which consequently resulted in the said court ruling arose from a 20-year Gas Supply Processing Agreement purportedly entered with P&ID by the past administration in 2010, the contract which P&ID never performed as agreed”.
Mr Malami then assured Nigerians that the federal government would punish any government official whose action or inaction led to the $9 billion contract judgement against Nigeria.
He also said the government “will vigorously defend its rights to protect its people’s assets around the world against the enforcement of the judgement.”
Modupe Gbadeyanka