President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday
ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the National
Intelligence Agency and the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu,
to launch a probe into the contract between the Federal Government and
the Process and Industrial Developments Limited, signed in 2010.
The controversial contract has become the subject of a $9.6bn judgment debt imposed on Nigeria by a British court last week.
The president also directed that the contract itself should be probed
with a view to identifying Nigerians involved in the signing of the deal
in 2010 for possible prosecution.
The President’s decision to
probe the firm and its activities was based on the fact that the Federal
Government suspected foul play in the contract which was negotiated and
signed under the past administration in 2010. But who are the past and
present Federal Government’s officials that represented Nigeria to sign
the purported contract 2010 between the Ministry of Petroleum Resources
and the P&ID?
Umar Yar’Adua
The late President Umar
Yar’Adua was technically at the helm of affairs when the project must
have been tabled before the Federal Government. However, he was on a
sick bed in faraway Saudi Arabia on January 11, 2010 when the contract
was signed.
Unfortunately, the soft-spoken President is no
longer alive to say what he must have known about the contract that has
the capacity to lead the country to steady haemorrhage.
Goodluck Jonathan
President Goodluck Jonathan was Vice President at the time the contract was signed.
Although he was the most senior government official in the absence of
his boss, he was treated as a ‘leper’ and an outsider by the ‘cabal’
that took charge of government business in the absence of Yar’Adua.
However,
on the doctrine of necessity subscribed to by the National Assembly,
Jonathan became the acting President on February 10, 2010 and went on to
be sworn in as President on May 6, 2010 upon the demise of Yar’Adua.
Our correspondent learnt that questions were asked on the contract when
Jonathan became president but they were not answered. Thus, the fire
kept smouldering.
Before Jonathan quit office on May 29, 2015,
P&ID and the Federal Government had agreed at a settlement fee of
$850m but he decided to hand over the liability to the incoming
government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa
Michael Aondoakaa was appointed the Minister of Justice and Attorney
General of the Federation on July 26, 2007. He was reputed to be one of
the members of the ‘cabal’ that ruled Nigeria in the absence of
Yar’Adua.
It was not yet clear what role he played in the
P&ID contract saga. However, as the chief law officer of the
country, he was expected to review major contracts before the country
could sign such document.
He lost his seat in the cabinet on February 10, 2010 – the day that Jonathan assumed power as the acting President.
Rilwan Lukman
Rilwan Lukman, an engineer, was a recurring decimal in the nation’s oil
and gas industry. He was appointed Honorary Advisor to Umar Yar’Adua on
energy and strategic matters in August 2007 and in December 2008, he
was appointed the Minister of Petroleum Resources.
So, he was
the Minister of Petroleum Resources at the time the ministry signed the
contract with P&ID. However, he left the cabinet on March 17, 2010
when Jonathan dissolved the Federal Executive Council. He died on July
21, 2014.
Liyel Imoke and Cross River State
Liyel Imoke
was the governor of Cross River State between May 2007 and May 2015.
Although the GSPA contract was a federal project, his administration
might have played some outsider role in the project. As of the press
time, it was not certain what role the state government under him
played.
Mansur Mukhtar
Dr Mansur Mukhtar, economist and
experienced technocrat in both the public private sector, was Minister
of Finance at the time the deal with the Process and Industrial
Development Limited was signed.
The former Director General of
Debt Management Office was appointed the Finance minister by the late
President Umar Yar’Adua on December 17, 2008.
As the Chief
Finance Officer of the country, a major financial transaction should not
scale through without passing through his table.
The Federal
Ministry of Finance Incorporated through which the government must have
acquired 10 per cent equity in P&ID is also under the purview of the
Ministry of Finance.
Mukhtar left the government in March 2010 when Jonathan dissolved the cabinet.
Lamido Sanusi
Lamido Sanusi was the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria at the
time the Federal Government entered into the contract with P&ID on
January 11, 2010.
It could not be determined what role he must
have played when the contract was signed. However, it is usual for the
chief banker of the nation to be aware of contracts that will commit the
nation to foreign exchange transactions.
Sanusi, who became
Muhammadu Sanusi II, the 14th Emir of Kano, was appointed governor of
CBN on June 3, 2009. He was suspended from the apex bank by President
Jonathan on February 20, 2014 in controversial circumstances.
Buhari and AGF Abubakar Malami’s role
President
Buhari inherited the controversial contract when he assumed office on
May 29, 2015. The controversy that surrounds it could have been settled
by him with good negotiation.
However, he must have been too
busy with preliminaries of taking over power to be bothered about
settling a project that was not executed with $850m.
The President also failed to appoint a minister to take charge of legal affairs until November 2015.
An official of the Ministry of Justice had told a London court that the
handover to a new government was responsible for the delay in
implementing decisions reached with the P&ID.
Malami is the
current Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation. He
has been in charge of the contract suit since he assumed office.
Although he assumed office when the arbitration had awarded the $9.6bn
judgment to the P&ID, the company accuses him of ignoring an offer
of $850m to settle the case out of arbitration.
Malami has promised that everyone that led the country to the alley would be punished.
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