$9.6b P&ID judgment: FG strengthens legal team

The Federal Government has taken steps to strengthen its legal team in its challenge of the controversial $9.6billion judgement given in favour of the Irish firm, Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) in a London court.The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who disclosed this Wednesday said the target was to have the illegal Gas Supply contract, which gave rise to the award against Nigeria, quashed.Malami, in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday by his spokesman, Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, said the FG has started implementing enhanced strategies geared towards setting aside the entire P&ID liability and possible nullification of the contract.According to the Minister, under the new strategy no lawyers were replaced, but more lawyers with specialized skills are locally and internationally engaged to support the existing capacity and initiate fresh suits with a view to achieve the desired result.Explaining what he meant by the desired results, the Attorney-General of the Federation said this time around it is not limited to a challenge on enforcement proceedings, but extended to setting aside the entire liability and probably the nullification of the contract on the basis of which the award was hinged.While repudiating the allegation on replacement of the Nigerian Legal team on P&ID Malami said Our lawyers originally engaged have proven to be versatile, competent and effective and constitute our winning team. They have such capacity which we do not doubt in their ability to deliver.Read Also;EFCC not witch hunting anyone, groupMaguThere was no change of counsel, but enhanced strategy commonly agreed upon which was targeted at getting overall success, the Minister said.Malami recently described the so-called PID contract as a well-organized scam consciously, deliberately and intentionally orchestrated by some dubious and well-placed Nigerian government officials at the time with some shrewd foreign collaborators to defraud Nigeria and inflict heavy economic and financial loss on Nigeria and its people.He vowed that the Nigerian Government will not sell out the interest of the country and the Nigerian people in order to satisfy some elements who are consciously out to extort the Nigerian people for their selfish aggrandizement.We will not allow fraudulent local and foreign collaborators to rip off the resources of Nigeria for no just cause but merely to be seen as being nice or investor-friendly, Malami said.
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