Eric Ikhilae, Abuja
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Apo, Abuja, heard on Thursday that the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation (OAGF) played no role in the preparation and signing of the controversial gas supply contract awarded to Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) Limited.
The Federal Government is battling to quash a $9.6 billion that was given against Nigeria by a London court on the controversial contract.
An operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Umar Babangida told the court that investigation by his team revealed that the contract was not submitted to the OAGF for vetting as claimed by a former legal director in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Grace Taiga.
Babangida spoke while testifying as prosecution witness at the resumed hearing in the trial of Mrs. Taiga on charges of acceptance of gratification and abuse of office in relation to her alleged role in the signing of the agreement.
The witness had, on November 6, when he opened his testimony, told the court that Mrs. Taiga claimed, under interrogation, that she submitted the agreement to the office of the AGF for vetting.
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He said: “After the defendant stated that she forwarded the draft GSPA to the Ministry of Justice, we wrote a letter to the Honourable Minister in charge of the Ministry, requesting evidence of receipt of the GSPA and asked the minister to send a copy of the drafted agreement.
“We received a response from the Ministry of Justice, signed by the Solicitor General of the Federation, Mr. Dayo Apata (SAN) informing us that after a thorough search of their archive, there was no evidence that such document was received from the Ministry of Petroleum.
“He also stated unequivocally that the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice did not play any role and was not aware of the drafted agreement from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.”
The witness further said that upon receiving a letter, his team invited the former Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice between the year 2008 and 2015.
He said: “In respect of the letter from the office of the AGF, we contacted and invited one Mr. Abdullahi Yola, he was the Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice between the year 2008 and 2015.
“We interacted and interviewed him over the GSPA. He confirmed that throughout his tenure in office, the GSPA was never brought to him for vetting.
“He further stated that according to the regulation of the Ministry, agreements by legal officers at Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) above N50 million must be forwarded to the office of the AGF for vetting and a project of that nature ought to have been forwarded but that wasn’t done” he said.
Babangida told the court that during investigation, it was discovered that an associate company of Petroleum and Industrial Development made several payments into the Zenith Bank account of the defendant.
He added: “During investigation, it was discovered that one of P&ID’s associate company, Industrial Consultant International, paid $10,000 into the account of the defendant domiciled in Zenith Bank.
“In 2018, the same Industrial Consultant International paid another $10,000 into the defendant’s Zenith Bank account.
“Another associate company called Eastwide Trading Limited, paid $1,000 into the defendants account.
“The only payments made to that domiciliary account were from these two associates. Also from the investigation of her naira account, it showed that she received N194, 210 on 27 March, 2019 from Industrial Consultant International.
“Also on 28 March, 2019, another sum of N194, 230 was received from the Industrial Consultant International. Further investigation showed that those payments were made in Euros, 500 Euros each.
“The defendant also wrote a letter to the Branch Manager of Zenith Bank requesting that the Euros be converted to Naira and paid into her naira account.”
Babangida added that an email was sent from Brendan Cahill to Taiga, thanking her for being a good friend to Cahill and Michael Quinn and also asking her to present the email in the bank to enable her have access to the $21,000 sent to her.
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