P&ID: Malami expresses appreciation as court orders release of $200m back to Nigeria

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has expressed appreciation as the Commercial Court in London ordered that the 200 million dollars used as a deposit by Nigeria in the P&ID case be returned to the Nigerian government.

Malami, in a statement by Dr Umar Gwandu, the Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations to the Minister, said he is glad over the victory in addition to the multiple successes recorded so far by the ministry.

“The recent judgment on the Nigeria’s cases against P&ID demonstrated an outcome of strong commitment and determination of the present administration through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice to tackle fraud, corruption, non-compliance with the due process.

“Since the minister took over the coordination of the case, it has been a matter of success upon success,’’ he added.

According to him, as a result of the determination of the Attorney-General, the following successes, relating to the matter, were recorded:

“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, Nigeria was successful as the court award payment of legal cost of €1.5m in favour of the country.

Other successes include, the court order for the release of bank guarantee in favour of Nigeria, award of payment of €70,00 to Nigeria as further legal cost relating to the issue and Nigeria obtaining multiple positive rulings to obtain information from banks abroad which helped in establishing fraud.