SAN FRANCISCO, August 30, (THEWILL) – A former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice Michael Aondooakaa, has revealed that the oil contract, whose alleged breach led to the $9.6 billion judgment against the country, was never debated for approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
THEWILL recalls that a United Kingdom court, in a ruling, authorised an Irish engineering and project management company, Process and Industrial Developments Ltd. (P&ID) to seize $9.6 billion in Nigerian assets over the failed contract.
The judgment is a fallout of the contract purportedly entered into in July 2010 between the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and P&ID and the subsequent award made in July 2015 by an arbitration panel sitting in London in favour of the company.
Chief Aondooakaa, who was the country’s chief law officer in 2010 when the contract was purportedly signed, said in a telephone chat with The Nation “I can tell you that no such contract was brought for deliberation to the best of my knowledge “I did not see such contract and since the news broke I have been wondering how this was possible.”
He backed efforts by the Federal Government to reverse the judgment and remedy the embarrassing situation.
Chief Aondooakaa’s position corroborated that of Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami that the contract was designed to fail ab initio.
