naijapower:
Irish authorities and AIB are being drawn into a high-profile international legal dispute between Nigeria and a company founded by Irish investors that is claiming $9.6 billion (€10.8 billion) for a failed contract.

Nigerian prosecutors said they would seek the extradition of two men from the Republic to Nigeria. They also said they were seeking information about funds sent to a Nigerian government lawyer that were transferred through AIB.

The African country is embroiled in a fight with Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), which was founded by Irish investors Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill, over a failed 2010 deal to develop a gas-processing plant. Nigeria now alleges the contract was won corruptly and the project was never meant to succeed. P&ID denies any wrongdoing.

The Nigerian anti-corruption agency has expanded its investigation into the deal by making formal requests for assistance from Irish law enforcement and the UK’s National Crime Agency, Ibrahim Magu, the head of the Nigerian agency, said in an interview with Bloomberg in London. He was one of more than a dozen government officials to speak to the news agency on Tuesday.

The latest developments may draw the Government into the dispute. An Irish citizen who worked for Mr Quinn has been arrested and charged in Nigeria and remains in custody, according to lead prosecutor Bala Sanga.

P&ID co-founder Mr Cahill and Mr Quinn’s son Adam will “in due course be charged,” he said, adding that he would seek the extradition of both men from Ireland to Nigeria. Mr Cahill and Mr Quinn didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Nigerian prosecutors also said they had evidence of two bank transfers totalling $20,000 (€18,250) made by Dublin-based Industrial Consultants (International) Ltd – part of the P&ID group of companies – to Grace Taiga, a Nigerian government lawyer who oversaw the award of the gas plant contract. The payments, in 2017 and 2018, were made from an Industrial Consultants account at AIB and were purportedly for “medical costs,” Mr Sanga said in the interview.


AIB spokesman
A spokesman for AIB said the bank did not comment on individual accounts. A spokesperson for P&ID didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest allegations.

Ms Taiga’s lawyer denied that his client had been bribed.

“How could there have been a bribe to facilitate the contract that was done in 2010 and now get paid in 2018 or 2017?” Wole Olanipekun, Taiga’s lawyer, said. “It just doesn’t add up.”

The payments, along with Ms Taiga’s email records, showed a “long-standing relationship” between the government official and P&ID founder Michael Quinn, who died in 2015, and his partner Mr Cahill, Mr Sanga said. Ms Taiga pleaded not guilty last week in Nigerian court to charges of fraud and accepting bribes. She was granted bail in a hearing on Wednesday and is set to stand trial on October 14th

One of the world’s largest lawsuits, the claim pits the small Irish-run firm against Africa’s largest economy.

P&ID, which has attracted financial backing from hedge fund manager VR Capital Group, and support from British home secretary Priti Patel, has won a series of court rulings in London and the US.

The British Virgin Islands-based firm has said the Nigerian investigation is a “sham” and an attempt to escape its legal obligations. Its lawyers have threatened to start seizing state assets abroad to enforce the award.

After Bloomberg published an article about the Irish founders of P&ID and their history of broken contracts and lawsuits, Nigerian investigators intensified their investigation. Two former representatives of P&ID pleaded guilty in an Abuja court this week to 11 charges including money laundering.

“We are giving notice to international criminal groups by the vigorous prosecution of the P&ID scandal attempting to cheat Nigeria of billions of dollars,” Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari said in an address to the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

Nigerian attorney general Abubakar Malami said in the interview that he was considering using the fraud allegations in court as part of its defence. The Nigerian ministers and officials were in the UK for a meeting with their legal team. A hearing is scheduled to take place in London on Thursday.

Enforcement
“The enforcement of the $9 billion cannot stand having been based on a foundation that is rooted in fraud, corruption, tax evasion and procedural circumvention,” Mr Malami said.

P&ID has said that its position is vindicated by the legal judgments in its favour.

The Nigerian anti-corruption agency’s investigators have uncovered large cash withdrawals from several companies linked to Mr Quinn and Mr Cahill since 2009, in breach of Nigerian money-laundering regulations, according to Mr Sanga. The largest withdrawal was for about $700,000 in cash. Investigators haven’t yet been able to trace the recipients of the money, Mr Sanga said. – Bloomberg

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/irish-authorities-and-aib-drawn-into-9-6bn-nigerian-dispute-1.4030167?mode=amp

saintokwuluora:
Contract awarded in 2010, bribe for the contract award given in 2018. Malami and Co are grasping for survival in this case. Obviously Buhari's government under rated P&I D till after the arbitration award. This is a case of medicine after death. The only hope here is resurrection, so government should be humble and seek to re-negotiate with the company before oyinbo go help their own to do Nigeria something.

saintokwuluora:
Contract awarded in 2010, bribe for the contract award given in 2018. Malami and Co are grasping for survival in this case. Obviously Buhari's government under rated P&I D till after the arbitration award. This is a case of medicine after death. The only hope here is resurrection, so government should be humble and seek to re-negotiate with the company before oyinbo go help their own to do Nigeria something.

Mrfeel:
All the foreign countries that supported Nigeria during the Biafra war, did so not because the care about Nigerian unity they did it because of the oil, shell company spent hundreds of millions on the Biafran war, Britain did the same, so they are just ripping the fruit of their labor, Nigerian government should pay that money

FreelanceRebel:


You deserve beating of a lifetime

naijapower:
British home secretary Priti Patel backing P&ID .A good news

Mrfeel:
All the foreign countries that supported Nigeria during the Biafra war, did so not because the care about Nigerian unity they did it because of the oil, shell company spent hundreds of millions on the Biafran war, Britain did the same, so they are just ripping the fruit of their labor, Nigerian government should pay that money

Mrfeel:
All the foreign countries that supported Nigeria during the Biafra war, did so not because the care about Nigerian unity they did it because of the oil, shell company spent hundreds of millions on the Biafran war, Britain did the same, so they are just ripping the fruit of their labor, Nigerian government should pay that money

Mrfeel:


Please read how Britain helped Nigeria during the Biafra war

The British had planned to maintain and expand their supply of cheap high-quality oil from Nigeria. Therefore they placed a high priority on maintenance of oil extraction and refining operations.
They backed the Federal Government but, when the war broke out, cautioned them not to damage British oil installations in the East.

These oilworks, under the control of Shell-BP Petroleum Development Company (jointly owned by Shell and British Petroleum), controlled 84% of Nigeria's 580,000 barrels per day.
Two-thirds of this oil came from the Eastern region, and another third from the newly created Mid-West region. Two-fifths of all Nigerian oil ended up in Britain.

Here was a deal

Shell-BP therefore considered carefully a request by the Federal Government that it refuse to pay the royalties demanded by Biafra

. Its lawyers advised that payment to Biafra would be appropriate if this government did in fact maintain law and order in the region in question.

The British government advised that paying Biafra could undermine the goodwill of the Federal Government.
But Shell-BP made the payment, to (biafra) and the government established a blockade on oil exports.

Forced to choose a side, Shell-BP and the British government threw in their lot with the Federal Government in Lagos, apparently calculating that this side would be more likely to win the war. As the British High Commissioner in Lagos wrote to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs on 27 July 1967:

Shell-BP took this advice. It continued to quietly support Nigeria through the rest of the war, in one case advancing a royalty of £5.5 million to fund the purchase of more British weapons.

During the war, Britain covertly supplied Nigeria with weapons and military intelligence and may have also helped it to hire mercenaries. After the decision was made to back Nigeria, the BBC oriented its reporting to favour this side. Supplies provided to the Federal Military Government included two vessels and 60 vehicles.



Nigeria should pay that money and stop complaining

naijapower:
British home secretary Priti Patel backing P&ID .A good news