President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, National Intelligence Agency and the Nigerian Police to investigate the administration of ex-president Goodluck Jonathan over the contract which led to a judgement debt of $9.6billion(N3.5trillion).
President Buhari ordered the agencies to probe the criminal conspiracy associated with the project.
The federal government said the contractor, Process and Industrial Developments Ltd. (P&ID) did not execute the contract.
These position and clarifications were made known 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, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues 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”.
