Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) on Tuesday, confirmed the refund of the $200m which Nigeria was ordered to deposit as a condition precedent for appealing against the $9.6bn judgment debt in favour of Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID).
The Minister who disclosed this in a statement expressed appreciation to the Commercial Court in London for the order, which he said has gone a long way to prove Nigeria’s position in the matter that the award claimed by P&ID was unjustified.
The statement which was signed by his Spokesperson, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, Malami said, “The recent judgment on the Nigeria’s cases against P&ID demonstrates an outcome of strong commitment and determination of the present Federal Government through the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to tackle fraud, corruption, non-compliance with the due process.
“We are glad having this victory in addition to multiple successes recorded so far.”
Since the time the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice took over the coordination of the case, it has been a matter of success upon succeses.
Among other successes, you may recalled that as a result of the determination of the Attorney-General of the following successes, relating to the matter, were recorded: “Order for stay of execution of the arbitral award was granted.
Nigeria recorded tremendous success challenging the order for cash deposit of $200m to bank guarantee.
Success was equally recorded for having an order for the extension of time to challenge award and agreement.
Nigeria was successful as the court award payment of legal cost of €1.5m in favour of the country.
The Court ordered release of bank guarantee in favour of the Federal Government of Nigeria.6. Award of payment of €70,00 to Nigeria as further legal cost relating to the issue.
Nigeria obtains multiple positive rulings to obtain information from banks abroad which helped in establishing fraud.