Malami Forecloses Negotiation With P&ID, Says Nigeria Will Not Negotiate With Fraudsters

*Charges newly inaugurated NLRC Board to be guided by law

By Alex Enumah

The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, on Thursday, said that the Federal Government of Nigeria was not considering any possibility of negotiation with Process and Industrial Development (P&ID).

Malami, who made the disclosure in a statement by his media aide, Dr Umar Gwandu, said that the government will not negotiate with “fraudsters” who exploited the country.

P&ID had dragged Nigeria to a British commercial court over a failed Gas Supply and Processing Agreement (GSPA) entered in 2009.

The Irish firm had in 2019 secured a judgment debt of $9.6 billion against Nigeria, which also threatened seizure of Nigeria’s assets abroad.

The court had earlier in 2017 fined Nigeria $6.6 billion for allegedly failing to fulfill her part of the GSPA.

However Nigeria appealed the judgment on the grounds that the contract from inception was fraudulent and designed to exploit the country.

“There will be no negotiation or talk of settlement with P&ID or any related party by or on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria. The recent judgment of the English Commercial Court confirmed our view that P&ID and its cohorts are fraudsters who have exploited our country. They will not benefit from their corrupt behavior.

“This is a classic case with overwhelming fraudulent and corrupt undertones. The Federal Government of Nigeria is not considering any possibility of negotiations with P&ID. It is has not only fallen within the tall order exception referred to by the Hon Attorney General in his interview with Arise TV yesterday, but lacks any legitimate foundation”, Gwandu said in the statement.

“We will not and cannot negotiate arbitral awards where the basis and foundation rely on fraud, corruption, breach of processes and procedures.

“The Government remains wholly committed to fighting this case to overturn the exorbitant award without paying a single naira of public money to these fraudsters”. he added.

Meanwhile, Malami on Thursday called on the newly inaugurated members of the 9th Commission of the Nigerian Law Reform to be guided by the rules and regulations as provided by the Section 2 & 8 (1) of the Act.

The Minister asked them to ensure that all the rules and regulations relating to management of the human, material and financial resources of the commission were adhered to in accordance to the objectives of the Federal Government, as contained in Section 8(1) (c) of the Act.

He added that, ‘’It is uniformly agreed that law as an instrument of social engineering always served as the instrumentality of meaningful reform in any civilized society’’.

Details later….