Follow Us on Google
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Government said Wednesday that it was studying a UK commercial court judgement that ruled that there is no evidence of fraud in the OPL 245 transaction between Nigeria and JP Morgan Chase Bank.
The Commercial Court of England and Wales on Tuesday, June 14, ruled on the matter in Case No CL-2017-000730 as contained in its 137-paged judgement.
An Italian court in 2021 also dismissed all corruption charges in the OPL 245 deal, discharging and acquitting all the defendants.
The Nigerian government in the judgement lost $1.7 billion claims against JP Morgan Chase Bank over the transfer of proceeds from the sale of OPL 245 in 2011
The Minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed while responding to questions from State House Correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council, Presidential, Villa, said the government’s lawyers will study the ruling and decide whether to appeal or not.
The Nigerian government had contended that the contract awarded to former Petroleum Minister Dan Etete, to explore the deep waters off the Gulf of Guinea was corrupt alleging that the bank “ought to have known” that there was corruption and fraud in the transaction which saw Malabu sell its 100 per cent in OPL 245 to Shell and ENI for $1.1 billion.
Lawyers to the Nigerian government alleged that the bank ignored “glaring” red flags, including “overwhelming” evidence of fraud and stark warnings from its own compliance staff when it authorized the payments.
Meanwhile, the Council has approved the enactment of the Federal Fire and Rescue Service Establishment Act 2022.
Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, made the disclosure while speaking on resolutions reached at this week’s meeting.
He said the new proposed law is meant to replace the old law establishing the Fire Service, which has been in existence for 60 years.
“The Federal Executive Council today approved the repeal of the 60-year-old Fire Service Act Cap F29, LFN 2004 and in its stead, the council approved the enactment of the Federal Fire and Rescue Service Establishment Act 2022, which is meant to bring into currency the operations and professionalism of the Federal Fire Service as it delivers its services to Nigerians,” he said.
The Minister said the council directed the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, to fine-tune the bill for onward transmission to the National Assembly for passage.
“The Attorney General was required to process and present to the National Assembly for review and ultimate passage and we expect that the law, when eventually passed and approved by the President will help in improving the capability and capacity of the Federal Fire Service,” he added.
