October 29, (THEWILL) – Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, saved the Federal Government from paying the $11bn awarded against Nigeria by an arbitration Court, a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Michael Aondoakaa, disclosed on Saturday.
On January 31, 2017, a private arbitration tribunal had ordered Nigeria to pay an Irish firm, Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID), $6.6 billion as damages accruing from March 20, 2013, with interest at a rate of seven per cent, which amounts to nearly $11 billion.
The award was in claim of damages by P&ID OF in a failed gas processing facility contract.
However, the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, sitting in London, had on Monday, October 23, voided the $11 billion arbitration order on Nigeria.
Speaking on an Arise Television breakfast show on Saturday, Aondoakaa, who was AGF when P&ID agreed with Nigeria in 2010 to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, recalls the pressure mounted on President Buhari to approve payment for the award to avoid heavier penalty if the matter dragged on.
The Former AGF, who was part of the consortium of senior lawyers interfacing with Nigeria’s lawyers at the London court, revealed how Emefiele resisted and advised former President Muhammadu Buhari against such approval.
While Emefiele had since June 10, 2023, been detained by the President Bola Tinubu-led administration, Aondoakaa said the former CBN chief actually convinced former President Buhari that the P&ID contract was fraudulent and advised Nigeria to hire competent lawyers to argue her case.
THEWILL recalls that Nigeria had in August 2022, levelled fresh claims of fraud against P&ID. The Federal Government had sought to convince a UK High Court that the contract was a scam ab initio. The lawyers representing the Nigerian Government told Sir Ross Cranston, head of the court, that P&ID knew from the beginning that there was no deal, noting that it was only a facade to fleece the Nigerian people.
Aondoakaa added that it was the assurances of Emefiele that President Buhari refused payment and rather encouraged litigation, which paid off on Monday, at the London court, adding that the CBN, under Emefiele, greatly assisted Nigeria’s legal team in the case at the London court
“I particularly give credit to the CBN under the then Governor, Godwin Emefiele, because there was strong pressure that settlement should be made. Our team was in the minority that we must fight till the end.
“There was also apprehension that if we didn’t settle and the court now gave judgment against us, Nigeria would lose everything.
“But for them to have confidence in us, there was one man in the CBN, the Director Legal Services, he gave us the confidence, gave us the support and ensured that we were able to present to the UK lawyers that this was a fraud. So, I am most grateful, I completely agree with the honourable Attorney General that this is a big fraud,” he said.
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