By Isa Ibrahim
President Muhammadu Buhari delivers a speech at the General Debate of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA yesterday Senate summons AGF, Emefiele, others $9.6bn can build Mambilla’s hydropower plant President Muhammadu Buhari said yesterday that the Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) contract with the Nigerian government was a scam aimed at cheating the country of billions of dollars. The president also gave notice to “international criminal groups” through what he called “the vigorous prosecution of the P&ID scam” which attempted to cheat Nigeria of billions of dollars. It was the first time President Buhari was publicly speaking on the matter. Buhari in his “National Statement” as the fifth speaker on the first day of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA74), alerted the world of the magnitude of the $9.6b scandal, which is now a subject of litigation in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, alongside the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed; Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu; the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; and the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, are in London developing strategies aimed at setting aside the award of $9.6b to P&ID. Buhari said his administration was tackling corruption head-on. The president, who said major tech companies must be alive to their responsibilities, added that they would not be allowed to continue to facilitate the spread of religious, racist, xenophobic and false messages capable of inciting whole communities against each other, leading to loss of lives. “Organised criminal networks, often acting with impunity across international borders present new challenges where only collective action can deliver genuine results” he said. “This is true in the battle against violent extremism, against trafficking in people and drugs and against corruption and money laundering. The present Nigerian government is facing the challenges of corruption head-on,” he said. Daily Trust reports that a British judge had ordered the Nigerian government to pay $9bn in assets to P&ID. The firm had earlier reached a deal with the Nigerian government in 2010 to build a natural gas plant – but the deal collapsed two years later. P&ID thereafter took the Nigerian government to court for allegedly failing to provide the gas or install the pipelines it promised to build while signing the contractual agreement. In one of its prayers granted by Justice Christopher Butcher, the company claimed that if executed, the project would have given birth to “a state-of-the-art gas processing plant to refine natural gas that Nigeria would receive free of charge to power its national electric grid.” The firm was first awarded $6.9bn (£5.4bn) in 2014, but the London court added $2.4bn in interest. If the British court judgement stands, P&ID would go home with an equivalent 20 per cent of Nigeria’s declared foreign reserves of $45bn. But a Federal High Court in Abuja last week convicted and subsequently ordered the winding up of P&ID Nigeria Limited, for charges of fraud and tax evasion. While P&ID Limited incorporated in British Virgin Island was represented in the dock by its Commercial Director, Mohammad Kuchazi, P&ID Nigeria Limited was represented by Adamu Usman, who is also a lawyer. Among other charges, they were accused of fraudulently claiming to have acquired land from the Cross River State Government in 2010 for the gas supply project agreement which led to the $9.6bn judgment. EFCC investigator, Usman Babangida, gave testimony before the court after the representatives of the firm pleaded guilty to all the 11 count charges. While urging the court to convict them according to their plea, the prosecuting counsel Bala S. Sanga presented to the court statements of account showing massive withdrawals of dollars, some running into as much as $700,000 and some of which established the violation of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, as well as the law on Advance Fee Fraud. He revealed that contrary to the impression sold by P&ID that it was established in Calabar, the company did not as much as acquire land for an office structure. Senate wades in The Senate earlier yesterday summoned Malami and Emefiele to brief it on the $9.6bn verdict. This followed a motion of urgent public importance moved by Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central). Also invited are officials of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and professional arbitrators engaged on behalf of the Federal Government. They are all to meet with the Senate committees on Judiciary and Human Rights Matters, Petroleum Upstream and Gas Resources and Power and provide the details of the contract, the reasons for the default, handling of resultant negotiations, court proceedings and steps being taken to resolve the issue. Earlier in his lead debate, Senator Bamidele, who chairs the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, said the motion was for the need to invite the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami and other relevant stakeholders to brief relevant committees of the Senate on the award of $9.6bn judgement against Nigeria. What Nigeria can do with $9.6bn With $9.6 billion funding which is about N3.25 trillion, Nigerian can finish the proposed 3050 megawatts (MW) Mambilla hydropower plant in Taraba State and bankroll the budget of three states, the Daily Trust reports. Records show that the 3050MW Mambilla power project is valued at $5.72bn (about N1.902trn), and is the most ambitious power project so far in Nigeria. The country is currently negotiating financing from the Chinese Export Import (EXIM) Bank for 85 per cent of the funding. Even after financing the power plant which could be the largest in West African, increasing the national grid to over 12,000MW and creating over six million indirect jobs, the balance of 1.35trn could finance the 2019 budget of Lagos, Kano and Kaduna states. The Lagos House of Assembly recently passed N874bn budget for 2019; Kano’s legislature passed N219bn for the state and Kaduna’s government signed into law its N239bn budget for the year. The budgets for the three states totalled N1.332 trillion, fitting well into the N1.35trn left from the N3.2trn P&ID damages awarded against Nigeria.
