By Chibuike Nwabuko
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Senate on Tuesday summoned the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Salami to appear before it to clarify issues on the Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) $9.6bn judgement against Nigeria.
Senator Michael Okpeyemi representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District who came through Orders 42 and 52 during plenary expressed concerns on the debt judgement against Nigeria and moved that senate invites Malami and officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to brief the senate on the matter.
The lawmakers afterwards approved the request and ordered Malami with officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and professional arbitrators to comprehensively brief the Senate on the details of the contract.
The contract for gas supply and processing (GSPA) was signed by the administration of late President Umaru Yar’Adua and P&ID.
But P&ID sued the Nigerian government for breaching the agreement by failing to provide the gas — or install promised pipelines to the project site as agreed in the contract.
An arbitration tribunal in London awarded the firm $6.6 billion (5.9 billion euros) in damages in January 2017.
P&ID said the accrued interest of $1.2 million a day had pushed that amount to more than $9 billion — about one-fifth of Nigeria’s declared foreign reserves of $45 billion.
The company was to build gas processing facilities around Calabar, Cross River State, and the government was to supply wet gas up to 400 million standard cubic feet per day.
The agreement defined wet gas as “associated gas removed, during oil production, having a propane content of not less than 3.5 mol per cent and a butane content of not less than 1.8 mol content, compressed and delivered via pipeline to the site