Deji Elumoye and Emameh Gabriel in Abuja
The Federal Government has resolved to set up a panel to investigate nine contracts signed by previous administrations which were in breach of due process and procurement procedures.
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, made this known on Monday when he appeared to defend his ministry’s 2022 budget estimate before Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters headed by Senator Opeyemi Bamidele.
Malami hinted that the P&ID contract, which was signed without due process and procedure had the capacity to rip off $10 billion from Nigeria.
In 2017, P&ID was awarded $6.6 billion as damages against the Nigerian Government.
Subsequently, the amount grew to the about $8.9billion with an additional $2.3 billion in accumulated interest at 7 per cent rate per annum following Nigerian government’s refusal to enter an appeal for several years.
Malami explained that the P&ID contract did not pass through the office of the Attorney General and there were embedded in the contract clauses that were inimical to Nigeria’s interest.
The AGF also disclosed that N1.1 billion would be set aside for a Taskforce in 2022 to carry out holistic Investigation on nine other contracts signed against the interest of the country by previous administrations.
He said, “It is the Taskforce that is intended to review the existing problematic contracts that have the capacity to undermine the economy in line with the P & ID; a kind of lessons and experience.
“In the office of the Attorney General, there exists two fundamental departments relating to getting of contracts. Solicitor Department is charged with vetting any governmental contract and they have lived up to expectations over time.
“But the major problem with P & ID is that contract was never ever allowed to pass through the Office of the Attorney General for vetting. So, on the account of that there are embedded in the contract clauses that are inimical to the interest of the nation.
“Because of the fact that there is a preliminary conspiracy among the key promoters of the contract, the contract was never allowed to pass through the Federal Executive Council, FEC for its approval, neither was it allowed to pass through the Federal Ministry of Justice for vetting.”
Detwils later..
