The Federal Government of Nigeria is requesting documents from ten banks, in a bid to get information that will help overturn a $9.6 billion arbitration award relating to a oil contract which the country feels is fraudulent.
According to a monitored report from Bloomberg, some of the banks involved in the request include Citigroup Inc, and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Nigeria had requested permission from the Federal Court in New York to subpoena information about transactions involving former President Goodluck Jonathan and other government officials who were in office when the contract with Process & Industrial Developments Ltd. (P&ID) was signed.
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The country is seeking these bank documents as part of internal investigations into the contract and arbitration proceedings, which will form the basis of the UK appeal.
Nigeria’s chances of getting the huge arbitration penalty annulled is now dependent on the country’s ability to proove that the 2010 gas supply arrangement was a scam designed to fail.
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It should be recalled that a UK arbitration court had slammed a $9.6 billion fine against Nigeria over its alleged breach of contract with P&ID Ltd. Nigeria, in a bid to overturn the judgment, filed an appeal through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation against the judgment.
P&ID had criticized the Federal Government’s desperate moves at the US law courts, and described the allegations of fraud as utterly spurious. The company even described Nigeria’s claims as a fishing expedition designed to waste resources.
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The company also alleged that the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and the Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, went on with the illegal arrest and detention of innocent individuals, all in a bid to force them to indict P&ID.