The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, has said that the judgment of the UK Court has vindicated Nigeria in the case against the Process and Industrial Development Ltd (P&ID).
Fagbemi, said this on Monday in Abuja, in his reaction to the judgment delivered by London’s Business and Property Court Judge, Robin Knowles, involving the whooping sum of over US$11 billion, which favoured the Federal Government.
The minister, who was addressing State House Correspondents, said the judgment would serve as a pointer to others, who might be nursing or nurturing any plan to swindle Nigeria.
He added that the case, which went on for many years, has finally now been resolved in favour of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Fagbemi said: “This successful result is a decisive victory for the people of Nigeria, who stood to lose over US$11 billion, and for the Nigerian administration, which has now reached a milestone in its mission to challenge the scourge of corruption.
“The judgment also serves as a damning indictment of predatory international investors, who should now rightfully be deterred from preying upon Nigeria and other developing nations to satisfy their greed.
“P&ID and its associates, both Nigerians and foreigners alike, shamelessly attempted to defraud the country and enrich themselves through sharing the FRN’s privileged documents, fraud, bribery and corruption on an industrial
scale.”
The minister said that it was imperative to point out that several agents of P&ID made overtures to the government for the settlement of the case.
He, however, said that the Tinubu administration’s resolve not to go hands in gloves with fraudulent counterparties or condone corruption informed the Federal Government’s position to hold fast to its position not to settle.
“The success recorded was a result of close inter-agency collaboration of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FGN) team, comprising the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Justice and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
“Others are the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU),” Fagbemi said.
The minister disclosed that there would be further hearings by the UK Court on the heels of the judgment in order to determine costs payable by P&ID and other matters.
Fagbemi explained that the crux of the court’s judgment was that Nigeria’s challenge to the arbitration award granted against it to the obscure hedge-fund-backed BVI Shell entity (P&ID) in 2017 has succeeded.
He further explained that the court found out that the award had been obtained by fraud and in a way that was contrary to public policy.
The minister said the Judge concluded that P&ID obtained the award only by practicing the most severe abuses of the arbitral process, which brought together a combination of examples of what some individuals would do for money.
“Driven by greed and prepared to use corruption; giving no thought to what their enrichment would mean in terms of harm to others.
“For us in this administration, it has been a night of long knives! This success marks the
the culmination of over a decade of legal action and is not just a victory for the people of Nigeria, but any similar target of corruption and fraud,” he said.
