YET, ANOTHER MULTIBILLION COURT SCANDAL

Bad habits and corruption in the system are causing the nation mounting anxiety

A combination of weak and compromised institutions cutting across the executive, legislature and judiciary is increasingly encouraging the culture of corruption and impunity in Nigeria. While the country is still struggling hard to free itself from the attempt by the Process and Industrial Development Ltd (P&ID) to skim off $9.6 billion in damages through a failed gas processing contract, another similar case has popped up. A company named Petro Union Oil and Gas Ltd is demanding a mind-boggling sum of about $15 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Union Bank Plc and indeed, Nigeria, for a transaction that was at best intriguing. The court must act expeditiously to curtail another assault on our commonwealth.

The facts of the case are winding, involving deeply obscure flow of money. In 1994, Petro Union allegedly lodged a cheque from a branch of Barclays Bank, United Kingdom, to the tune of 2.556 billion British pounds with Union Bank in Lagos. According to the account, the money would be used to establish a bank in addition to three petrochemical refineries in Nigeria. But the cheque could not be honoured because of some discrepancies. The company that issued it – Gazeaft Limited – reportedly did not exist on the Register of Companies in the UK. Besides, the account from which the money was drawn was closed in 1989 while the cheque was presented five years later in 1994.

However, the managing director of Petro Union turned to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) where the matter was investigated but thrown out in 2005 with Union Bank cleared of all allegations. But Petro Union waited for seven years before turning to the courts to seek justice. At the Federal High Court, Abuja, it accused the Union Bank and CBN of the alleged offences of stealing and criminal conversion, arguing that the sum of 2,556bn British pounds was transferred to CBN while Union held back 397 million pounds as commission. Petro Union further alleged that the money in CBN was lodged in a company account called Goldmatic. The Minister of Finance and the Attorney General of the Federation were joined in the suit.

However, pertinent questions remain unanswered: Why would the Union Bank transfer a substantial part of the money to a private company in CBN when it is not a depositors’ bank? Do private companies open accounts with the apex bank? Did any company by that name even exist? What was the deal?

Surprisingly, however, Petro Union secured a judgement in its favour and was affirmed by the Appeal Court. Meanwhile, the judgement obtained by Petro Union at the Federal High Court in 2014 for the sum of 2,556bn pounds carries additional head-scratching baggage: an interest of 15 per cent per annum from 22 June 1995 until when payment is made. Today, the judgement sum together with interest is more than 12bn British pounds (about $15.5bn), enough to energise and reflate the stagnant and debt-dependent economy.

In all, besides the issue of fairness, what should be of interest to Nigerians remains the speed with which the entire process is being handled. The delays in our judicial system are deliberate acts of individual lawyers and judges which of course are extension of a national culture of tardiness and corruption in most spheres. The crisis of credibility is taking a serious toll on the institution and the nation at large.

On the present case involving Union Bank, we urge the federal ministry of justice to mount a vigorous challenge to this latest attempt at fleecing Nigeria of scarce resources. The idea of settling spurious judgement debts is neither sustainable nor is it in the national interest.