The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the
circumstances surrounding the $9.6bn judgment recently secured by
Messrs Process and Industrial Developments in a court in the United
Kingdom against Nigeria.
As part of the probe, the House also resolved to invite the
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation,
Abubakar Malami (SAN); and Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre
Sylva, for questioning.
The move by the lower chamber of the National Assembly followed
the adoption of a motion moved by a member from Edo State, Mr
Julius Ihonvbere, at the plenary on Wednesday.
It was entitled, ‘Motion for the Urgent Need to Investigate the
Act of Negligence in the Handling of the Process and Industrial
Development Limited’s Transaction by the Ministry of Justice and
Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Respectively.’
Prayers of the motion, as adopted, include that the House set up
an ad hoc committee “to as a matter of urgency, invite the
ministers of both ministries as well as other officials of the
ministries saddled with the responsibility to negotiate the
agreement with P&ID and the prosecution of the matter before
the tribunal, to give situational report on the matter and explain
the lapse in judgment of time and due diligence in the
(miss)handling of the case, with a view to finding lasting
solutions to the avalanche of extant and future cases.”
The 17-man panel, which the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, set up
after the adoption, was mandated to recommend appropriate sanctions
where necessary “without fear or favour or preference for status”
in line with Order 14 of the Standing Orders of the House.
Also, the panel was mandated to initiate a process of reviewing
all agreements and treaties signed by Nigeria through the
appropriate committees to create opportunities to discover
anomalies and avoid a repeat in the future.
Moving the motion, Ihovbere said for a country with a foreign
reserve of only $45bn and a sovereign debt profile of over $80bn,
the judgment debt was not only punitive but would devastatingly
affect Nigeria’s economy.
He said, “The House is aware of the fact that Nigeria has a
penchant for disregarding the sanctity of contracts and terms of
agreement, coupled with the failure of Nigeria’s representatives in
many cases to carefully or diligently scrutinise agreements they
sign, knowing that the consequences will affect past and future
generations.
“The House is alarmed that the agreement was somewhat shrouded
in secrecy and, as such, apparently dubiously procured as those who
ought to know about its existence did not. And more importantly,
the relevant laws in Nigeria for the transaction to be consummated
were not applied, especially Part IV of the Bureau of Public
Procurement Act 2007 which deals with the fundamental principles of
procurement.
“It took the new Nigerian government more than four months to
respond to the vital arbitration judgment of about $6bn, with a
ridiculous excuse that there had been a change of administration in
Nigeria and that ministers, including the attorney-general, had
only just been appointed, thus asking for an extension of time to
act on the outcome of the arbitration tribunal.
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