President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the National Intelligence Agency and the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to conduct a thorough invest
igation into the activities of the Process and Industrial Developments Limited which was recently asked by a United Kingdom court to seize $9.6bn in Nigerian assets.
He said, “We want to place on record that the Federal Government views with serious concerns the underhanded manner in which the contract was negotiated and signed. “The Federal Government therefore wishes to use this opportunity to assure Nigerians that there is no immediate threat to Nigeria’s assets as has been wrongly interpreted by a section of the media.
He noted that in the 20-year Gas Supply Processing Agreement purportedly entered into with the P&ID in 2010, the company never performed as agreed, therefore necessitating the case going to arbitration. “The Federal Government then engaged the services of the US law firm of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP, which took steps to defend the proceedings in the US District Court of Columbia to dismiss P&ID’s application for the enforcement of the award on the grounds that Nigeria, as a sovereign state, has an absolute right to obtain an authoritative determination of its sovereign immunity.
“The criminal investigation relating thereto, has indeed become necessary in view of the certain antecedent relating to the contract in its own right and the eventual award. “So, when you conceived, signed and executed a contract for the supply of gas products without involving IOCs, NPDC, and NNPC as parties to that agreement, you know very well that there are a lot of questions to answer arising from the execution of that agreement.
“Within the context of this appreciation that the contract was originally designed not to succeed, that the contract was entered into with the parties that are originally not entitled to execute or sign the agreement that the Nigerian state was subjected to unnecessary economic sabotage right from the conception of the agreement down to the execution level.
“For us in the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, we take comfort from the efforts that have so far been put in place by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to ensure that this judgment is set aside because the consequences will be unpleasant for each and every Nigerian. “On our part as the Central Bank of Nigeria, we note that the P&ID is a foreign company. As a foreign company, if you are investing either in a contract or a project in Nigeria, there are various options you will adopt in bringing in your investment.
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