$9.6bn JUDGMENT: We ‘re taking every legal, diplomatic action to upturn ruling —Lai Mohammed

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has given assurances that the Federal Government would upturn the judgment granting Irish firm, Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID) Ltd., $9.6bn damages against Nigeria.

A UK court had authorized, P&ID, an Irish engineering and project management company, to seize $9.6billion in Nigerian assets over a failed gas contract.

Mohammed, while speaking newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, asked Nigerians to ignore the “ostentatious claims” by P&ID on compilation of Nigeria’s assets for seizure over the awarded damages.

“You will see that there is a lot grandstanding on the part of the P&ID, especially by the Public Relations consultant it hired.

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“As a matter of fact, they are already threatening that they are already compiling the list of assets of Nigeria to attach.

“The truth of the matter is that, even in the judgment, the court said that it cannot start any attachment until the court resumes from vacation.

“We are doing everything possible and we are very optimistic that we will escape any embarrassment of attachment of the country’s assets as a result of this dubious award.

“The Federal Government has taken all necessary steps to ensure that no property of the country is attached by any court.

“Government will leave no stone unturned, legally and diplomatically, to ensure that our asset will not be affected as a result of the judgment,’’ he said.

The minister reiterated that the contract was a scam from inception, with both local and international collaborators whose aim was to deplete the nation’s foreign reserves.

“How can people cometo Nigeria with portfolio, and walk away with about 20 per cent of our entire foreign reserve?

“We believe that both in terms of morality and law, we are confident that we will upturn the judgment.

“It is important to know that the government has also ordered investigations into the transactions because there are strong indications that under handed things went on,’’ he said.

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