$9billion Judgment: Jonathan React As Malami Threatens Probe

The Minister blamed the regrettable development on the immediate past administration of the People Democratic Party, PDP stressing that if the administration was competent and diligent, the recent $9 billion judgment would not have arisen. 

According to him, “Nigerians woke up on Friday, August 16, 2019, to the rudest consequences of the underhand dealings of the past administration that has resulted in the award of $9 billion against the Federal Republic of Nigeria by a British court which ruled that Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) had the right to seize $9 billion in Nigerian assets.”

Reacting to the statement, Jonathan in a statement issued by his former media aide, Reno Omokri on Friday said, the above statement by Malami was “nothing but twisted misinformation from an incompetent administration that is known for its propaganda and wants to pull the wool over the eyes of Nigerians.”

According to the statement, Jonathan's administration had no hand in the conception, negotiation, and signing of the said P&ID contract. The contract was signed in January of 2010, whereas the Jonathan administration came into being, in an acting capacity, on February 9, 2010.

He added that “the only role that Jonathan administration played was that of damage control. However, such patriotic efforts were frustrated by Mr. Malami and their administration.

He explained that the Jonathan administration was involved in the negotiation of the P & ID when the company went in arbitration initially. However, it negotiated down the demand by P&ID for loss of revenue to $1.5bn, before it was again brought down to about $850m by the same Jonathan government during the last lap of the administration.  He added that negotiations were still ongoing before Jonathan lost the election, adding that details of the negotiations were included in the handover notes to the Buhari regime.

"Consequently, rather than agree to the counsel of the previous government in the handover notes, the whole matter was improperly handled by the present administration, partly because General Buhari had no cabinet in place for 6 months after swearing-in in 2015, which translate to Nigeria was not properly represented at the arbitration. It is suspected that some officials in this government wanted Nigeria to lose so that they could be rewarded by P&ID", Jonathan claimed.

The statement cautioned the Buhari administration “to stop pointing an accusing finger and start looking for solutions to its own self-induced challenge. It must be aware that it is too late in the day to rewrite history", it added.

(Dailypost).