A Federal Court in United States of America, presiding in New York has granted President Muhammadu Buhari request to investigate bank transactions involving his predecessor, President Goodluck Jonathan, the wife, Patience, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke and other top government officials.
President Buhari made the request on the ground that those politicians were in office when Nigeria signed a contract with a company, Process and Industrial Development Limited, which has become a source of dispute.
Leading other lawyer’s to appear for the President and the Country before the court was the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
AGF stated in his application to the court submitted on March 24 that there is a good reason to believe that ministers at the highest level were involved in a corrupt scheme to steal money from Nigeria.
Nigeria’s chances of annulling the giant penalty lie on proving the 2010 gas supply arrangement was a sham designed to fail by P&ID and government officials.
The saga became a full-blown crisis for Nigeria last August when a U.K. judge ruled that P&ID could enforce an arbitration tribunal’s 2017 ruling, now totaling $9.6 billion including interest, which found the country breached the agreement.
The applications were made by Alexander Pencu, a partner of Meister Seelig & Fein LLP, attorneys for the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Malami.
Details of the information being sought by the Federal Government are meant for use in “ongoing foreign criminal investigations and criminal proceedings in the Federal Republic of Nigeria (the “Nigerian Proceedings”),” the filing, dated March 25, reads in part.
“The requested discovery will assist applicants in the Nigerian Proceedings to investigate and prosecute individuals and entities that participated in, and were enriched by, P&ID’s fraudulent scheme,” it added.
In the testimony of the subpoena filing addressed to Citibank, for instance, the applicant sought the intervention of the bank or any of its officers to testify in the case.
The politically-exposed persons named in the subpoena are former oil minister late Rilwanu Lukman; Dr Jonathan and his wife, Patience; and Allison-Madueke.
Others named in the subpoena are Taofiq Tijani; Grace Taiga; Mohammad Kuchazi; one Michael Quinn, who died in 2014; James Nolan; Adam Quinn; and Ibrahim Dikko.
Former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke.
