The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Tuesday, opened its case at the Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja, against the British National, Mr James Nolan, who jumped bail in 2022. Also the federal ministry of Justice said that “P&ID and its associates both Nigerians and foreigners alike, shamelessly attempted to defraud the country and enrich themselves through sharing the FRN’s privileged documents, fraud, bribery and corruption on an industrial scale. Those efforts, which took place over many years, have finally been uncovered for all to see. It is imperative to point out that several agents of P&ID made overtures to the Government for settlement of this case. However, the resolve of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to go hands in gloves with fraudulent counterparties or condone corruption informed the position of the FRN to hold fast to its position not to settle. Indeed, earlier this morning, the President at the opening ceremony of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, reiterated this cardinal position of his administration.
History has been made today, as this judgment is no doubt significant in the annals of Nigeria and indeed Africa. This judgement has vindicated the government and should serve as a pointer to others who might be nursing or nurturing any plan to swindle Nigeria. “The success recorded was as a result of close inter-agency collaboration of the FGN Team comprising the Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation (HAGF)/ Federal Ministry of Justice (FMo]), Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Department of State Security (DSS) and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU)”. Meanwhile the EFCC’s counsel, Mr Bala Sanga, led the 1st prosecution witness (PW1), Mr Temitope Erinomo, an Assistant Chief Complaint Officer with the anti-graft agency in evidence before Justice Obiora Egwuatu. Erinomo, who works in the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering, told the court he was part of the investigating team in the criminal charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/9/22 filed against Micad Project City Services Ltd (1st defendant) and Nolan (2nd defendant). Nolan, a director in the Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID), jumped bail and stopped attending court proceedings since 2022.
Though Nolan was not in court, his lawyer, Mr Michael Ajara, was in court. Ajara, however, told the court that he was indisposed, hence, he would not be able to cross examine the PW1. He, therefore, sought for an adjournment. Sanga did not oppose the application and the judge subsequently adjourned the matter until Jan. 16, Jan. 17 and Jan. 18 for cross examination and trial continuation. Justice Egwuatu had, on July 6, ordered a surety, Mr George Kadiri, to forfeit his N100 million bail bond to the Federal Government over his inability to produce the fleeing Briton, Nolan, in court. Egwuatu, in a ruling, also ordered Mr Kadiri, an Igala chief and a retired civil servant, who was absent in court, to be remanded in prison custody until the payment of the N100 million. The order followed an oral application by Sanga over non-appearance of Kadiri in court. The surety’s lawyer, Lisa Egwu, had tendered a medical certificate, claiming that Kadiri had a bathroom accident a week before the proceeding and was too ill to attend the court sitting. Delivering his ruling, the judge held that the submission of the prosecution was not in doubt that Nolan had jumped bail and that he is currently in Ireland. He held that since September 27, 2022, the surety and the defence team had been aware that the 2nd defendant (Nolan) had jumped bail. The judge also agreed with the anti-graft agency that no significant effort had been made by the surety to ensure the attendance of the fleeing Briton in court nor had he shown to court what additional or fresh effort he intended to make in procuring his attendance in court. Egwuatu further agreed with the prosecution that Kadiri, from the look of things did not know Nolan and that there was every likelihood that the suretyship was just a business transaction.
The judge, who held that it was the responsibility of the surety to produce the defendant in court, said this was even when a bail relationship is a transaction between the surety and the court. The prosecuting counsel, Sanga, had earlier lamented the deliberate ploy by the defence counsel to delay the trial, saying the court had been magnanimous to the defence for several months. NAN equally reports that Justice Ahmed Mohammed of a FHC, Abuja had, on Sept. 28, 2022, revoked the N100 million bail granted to Nolan for jumping bail. In a ruling in another charge filed before the judge, Mohammed issued a bench warrant against Nolan and ordered that he should be arrested by security agencies, including the Interpol, anywhere he is sighted within or outside Nigeria and be produced in court to stand his trial. The judge also directed the surety (Kadiri) to appear in court to show cause why his bail bond should not be forfeited.
Nolan was at the centre of the $9.6 billion dollars P&ID scam trial. Nolan, also a director with Goidel Resources Limited, a Designated Non-Financial Institution, with another company, ICIL Limited, are standing trial on 16 counts bordering on money laundering before Justice Mohammed to the tune of $9.6 billion. Monday that a Business and Property Court in London presided over by Justice Robin Knowles of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales quashed the $11 billion awarded against Nigeria in a case filed by the P&ID. Judge Knowles held that the award was obtained by fraud and that what had happened in the case was contrary to public policy. In the case marked: CL-2019-000752, the Federal Government had sought to overturn the $6.6 billion arbitration awarded in favour of P&ID in 2017.
Ministry of Justice in a statement said “as you may all be aware by now, the Honourable Mr Justice Robin St John Knowles of the United Kingdom Commercial Court today handed down a historic judgement in the suit where the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) moved to set aside the arbitral award of USS9.6 (now circa USD11 Billion) made against it in 2017, in favour of Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) for an alleged breach of a Gas Supply and Processing Agreement (GSPA) it purportedly entered into with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR) to establish a gas processing plant in Calabar for which P&ID never ever secured any land site. The Arbital Award had over the years placed the assets of the FRN and those of its agencies all over the world at the risk of attachment, erosion of foreign reserves and distortion of monetary, fiscal and other policies of government with attendant dire consequences for Nigeria and its people. This emphasised the need for FRN to vigorously challenge and resist the enforcement of the Award by P&ID.
“The High Court has today ruled that the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s (FRN) challenge to the arbitration award granted against it to an obscure hedge-fund backed BVI shell entity Process & Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) in 2017 has been successful. The judgment handed down today, found that the award had been obtained by fraud and in a way which was contrary to public policy. In particular, the Judge concluded that P&ID obtained the award only by “practising the most severe abuses of the arbitral process”. He further noted “That this case has also, sadly, brought together a combination of examples of what some individuals would do for money. Driven by greed and prepared to use corruption; giving no thought to what their enrichment would mean in terms of harm to other.” For us in this administration, it has been a night of long knives! This success marks the culmination of over a decade of legal action and is not just a victory for the people of Nigeria, but any similar target of corruption and fraud.
In the words of Mark Howard KC, lead counsel for the FRN which the court endorsed, ‘P&ID was exactly the type of entity that was prepared to engage in bribery, to achieve its aims – to undermine the administration of justice in Nigeria in the pursuit of, ‘riches beyond the dreams of avarice’. This successful result is a decisive victory for the people of Nigeria who stood to lose over USS11 billion, and for the Nigerian administration which has now reached a milestone in its mission to challenge the scourge of corruption. The judgment also serves as a damning indictment of predatory international investors, who should now rightfully be deterred from preying upon Nigeria and other developing nations to satisfy their greed. P&ID and its associates both Nigerians and foreigners alike, shamelessly attempted to defraud the country and enrich themselves through sharing the FRN’s privileged documents, fraud, bribery and corruption on an industrial scale. Those efforts, which took place over many years, have finally been uncovered for all to see. It is imperative to point out that several agents of P&ID made overtures to the Government for settlement of this case. However, the resolve of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to go hands in gloves with fraudulent counterparties or condone corruption informed the position of the FRN to hold fast to its position not to settle. Indeed, earlier this morning, the President at the opening ceremony of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group, reiterated this cardinal position of his administration. History has been made today, as this judgment is no doubt significant in the annals of Nigeria and indeed Africa. This judgement has vindicated the government and should serve as a pointer to others who might be nursing or nurturing any plan to swindle Nigeria.
“The success recorded was as a result of close inter-agency collaboration of the FGN Team comprising the Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation (HAGF)/ Federal Ministry of Justice (FMo]), Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR), the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Department of State Security (DSS) and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU)”.
