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.
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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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