The Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has expressed appreciation as the Commercial Court in London ordered the release of $200m used as a deposit by Nigeria in the P&ID case to be returned to Nigerian government.
A statement issued by Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, Special Assistant on Media to the HAGF on Tuesday 29th September, 2020 expressed Malami’s happiness.
“We are glad having this victory in addition to multiple successes recorded so far”, Malami said.
According to the statement, the recent judgment on the Nigeria’s cases against P&ID demonstrated an outcome of strong commitment and determination of the present Federal Government through the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to tackle fraud, corruption, non-compliance with the due process.
It noted that since the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice took over the coordination of the case, it had been a matter of success upon succes
It enumerated successes achieved as a result of the determination of the Attorney-General relating to the matter as follows: Order for stay of execution of the arbitral award was granted, Nigeria recorded tremendous success challenging the order for cash deposit of $200m to bank guarantee, success was equally recorded for having an order for the extension of time to challenge award and agreement.
Others were Nigeria’s success as the court awarded payment of legal cost of €1.5m in favour of the country, the Court Order to the release of bank guarantee in favour of the Federal Government of Nigeria, Award of payment of €70,000 to Nigeria as further legal cost relating to the issue and Nigeria obtained multiple positive rulings to obtain information from banks abroad which helped in establishing fraud.
Modupe Ogundoro
Deputy Director,
29th September, 2020.
