Aondoakaa: FG Must Review All Arbitral Matters Arising from Bogus Contracts After Victory in P&ID Case

•Says NNPC, others failed to make helpful materials available

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Michael Aondoakaa, yesterday called on the federal government to raise a team of legal experts to fight all cases of bogus contracts involving Nigeria, littered in courts worldwide.

The ex-chief law officer of the federation, who spoke on Arise Television, THISDAY’s broadcast arm, against Nigeria’s Monday victory at a British court on the Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) case, explained that the move if taken seriously, will help save the country much resources.

Justice Robin Knowles of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales had ruled in favour of Nigeria and quashed the enforcement of the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of Nigeria.

Aondoakaa maintained that he had always maintained that the contract was a fraud and had had to testify against a director in the ministry in court, because he was never aware about the so-called deal.

Stressing that it was contrary to public policy, the former Attorney General explained that winning the case has now given Nigeria a window to look at other similar cases, especially for those who hurriedly went abroad to get arbitration and tried to enforce it against Nigeria.

 Despite being an infrastructure-related deal, Aondoakaa wondered why the nation’s foremost infrastructure body was not  aware of the contract.

“The Office of the Attorney General then which I was occupying knew nothing about the contract. The Federal Executive Council (FEC) knew nothing about the contract,” he insisted.

The former minister further alleged that aside the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) under its former Governor, Godwin Emefiele and a handful of others, many government agencies did not cooperate, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), even when they knew that the nation’s economy was at stake.

“Certainly people did not address this matter seriously, especially the agencies of government that were supposed to provide information. If you go through the judgment, you’ll see it.

“My learned brother, Shashore, who was in the matter, has been completely exonerated in the judgment. The difficulties he had was getting information and getting documents from government officials who ordinarily were supposed to have be happy to give the information for him to defend Nigeria at that time.

“ But documents that we needed were not forthcoming. It’s a sad situation that we got ourselves to that position. And I believe now that every person that took part in the scheme has been exposed.

“You can imagine a case like this, the NNPC was dragging their feet when documents should be provided. So, it’s one thing that has exposed us as a country and then exposed those who defend the interests of Nigeria in situations like this. It is important for us to have the interest of the country at heart,” he stated.

He added that in other cases that may arise if the federal government decides to challenge other cases, government agencies must be willing to help because the country’s existence is at stake.

He added: “I urge my successor, Lateef Fagbemi, not just to look at the judgment, but it should be an eye opener for him to constitute a high-powered team of legal experts to look at similar cases of enforcement of arbitral awards we are facing all over the world. This will save Nigeria a lot of resources.”

He expressed happiness that Nigeria was successful in the P&ID case and commended both the Nigerian legal team and their foreign counterparts who secured victory for the country.

“I’m so proud that at least our efforts to convince the UK lawyers to fight on this issue of fraud have been successful. The facts are obvious; the contract was contrary to public policy. It’s an infrastructural concession that didn’t follow the laid down rules.

“Nobody from the infrastructural commission knew about the contract, as did the office of the Attorney General, which I occupied then, and also the Federal Executive Council; therefore, today, Nigeria has been vindicated,” he stated.