The attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, has described as “irresponsible” and “mischievous” for anyone to blame him or the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for the$9.6 billion fine resulting from a failed gas supply and processing contract that was awarded five years before his appointment.
He was reacting to the claim by the Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) that he was responsible for the delay that culminated in the award of $9.6 billion penalty over the failure of multi-million Gas Supply Processing Agreement (GSPA), which the federal signed with the company in 2010.
Speaking in Abuja, Malami who tendered documents to bak his defence said the contract was deliberately skewered to fail so as to benefit a syndicate that was out to extort Nigeria of its resources.
“The records are there for any sane person to see and judge if indeed Malami or indeed the Buhari government can be held responsible for an act that had been completed five years before we came into office.
“The contract in question was a 2010 agreement signed five years before I came into office while the award by the United Kingdom court of Arbitration was in June 2014, one year before I was appointed minister of Justice by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“As a responsible and responsive public officer keen on protecting the interest of Nigeria, I took steps to engage local and international lawyers to defend Nigeria’s interest once the stupendous award was brought to my knowledge as the chief law officer of the federation.”
He said Nigeria had engaged prominent renowned lawyers including Mr. Bola Ayorinde and Curtis Mallet-Prevost, Colt &Mosle to defend the country’s interest in the UK court.
“Above all, as far back as June 2017, I wrote series of letters to relevant security agencies in Nigeria to investigate the criminal conspiracy and economic sabotage occasioned by the GSPA contract.
“In addition, I also took appropriate steps to intimate relevant government institutions of developments as they unfolded regarding this matter and engaged in probable out of court settlement negotiations”, he explained.
He therefore said wrong and unfortunate for any sane person to insinuate or imply that he was culpable in any way regarding the award of $9.6 billion against Nigeria when it is clear that “I have no hand whatsoever in the planning, signing and implementation of the so-called gas supply and processing contract in 2010.”
