Malami on P&ID: It’s possible many heads will roll

Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general of the federation, says the Nigerians involved in compromising the processes in awarding the gas supply and processing contract with Process & Industrial Development will face the consequences.

Speaking in an interview with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) on Tuesday, Malami said the contract should not have been awarded without carrying out due diligence on the company.

However, he explained that the contract was signed because some Nigerians were compromised.

“From the investigation, it became clear that there were local compromises,” he said.

“The questions we asked was who are the characters involved in Nigeria? It is only logical that when you are committing a nation to a contract that has economic implications, that due diligence must be done.

“We have institutions like NIA, DSS, the police and Interpol that can conduct the due diligence. But because the intention from the beginning was never for the contract to be executed, all these processes were not carried out.

“From the report that came our way, we took the decision to ensure that there are consequences for wrongdoing and those elements that were involved in the act of wrongdoing were investigated, charged, arraigned and convicted. The investigation is ongoing and some facts are still emerging.

“As far as heads rolling, I can certainly state that there is a possibility of multiple and uncountable heads rolling is there.”

Nigeria has been trying to overturn a January 2017 judgement that asked the country to pay P&ID $6.6 billion as damages, as well as pre- and post-judgment interest at 7 percent.

The company had claimed that Nigeria breached the terms of a gas supply and processing agreement that was signed in 2010.

On Friday, September 4, Ross Cranston, a judge of the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, granted Nigeria’s application for an extension of time and relief from sanctions.

In his judgement, Cranston said Nigeria argued a strong case that the contract was awarded illegally.

The federal government has also taken legal actions against several people involved in the award process.

This include Grace Taiga, a former employee of the ministry of petroleum resources.