The Federal Government on Thursday denied the allegation that it did not diligently defend the case leading to the award of $9.6 billion judgment debt against it over a botched gas contract.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, gave the government position when he appeared as guest on the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) programme: “Good Morning Nigeria’’ monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
He said the insinuation in certain quarters that the government did not defend the case both at arbitration and court stages was “untrue and unfair.’’
A UK court had in a ruling authorised an Irish engineering and project management company, Process and Industrial Developments Ltd. (P&ID) to seize $9.6 billion in Nigerian assets over the failed contract.
The court judgment was a fallout of the contract purportedly entered into in 2010 between the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and P&ID and the subsequent award made in July 2015 by an arbitration panel sitting in London in favour of the company.
Mr Mohammed said the government successfully applied to have the award set aside by the Federal High Court in Lagos, but the Tribunal ignored this decision.
“It is not true that we did not defend it or we were not represented,’’ he said.
“The contract was entered into in 2010 and from the records made available, there were three arbitrators.
Source: Premium Times
