•Wants case settled amicably

•How P&ID, 12 smaller companies secured concessions

by Yusuf Alli,


THERE appears to be a silver lining over the controversial $9.6billion judgment debt with a son of the owner of Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID) reaching out to the Federal Government for an amicable resolution of the issue in dispute.

Adams Quinn, popularly called Adamu by his numerous friends from the North, is in contact with government, sources said on Saturday.
He has proposed a meeting with government in Madrid, Spain.

There were indications, on Saturday, that government was weighing all options, including a strong legal opinion that the case against P&ID was winnable.

A report has shown that the Irish founder of P&ID was a mechanic before moving into show business.

Bloomberg Businessweek revealed that he started as a military contractor.
He was said to have benefited from the cement armada in Lagos ports in the 70s before becoming an oil trader.

Although he registered P&ID in British Virgin Islands, the firm had no track record.

Investigation by our correspondent revealed that Adams was disturbed by the way the image of his late father, Michael Quinn, was being dragged in the mud after over 40 years of business in Nigeria.

It was learnt that a member of the Quinns family has been central to the latest move to resolve the judgment debt.

A presidency source said: “There is a fresh offer from the son of the founder of P&ID for fresh talks and negotiation with the Federal Government. Adams Quinn is just interested in amicable resolution of the issue in dispute.
“He does not like the controversy over the $9.6billion judgment, especially the aspersions being cast on his family.

“From what he told the intermediaries, Adams position is that given over 40 years of business relationship between his father and Nigeria, the two parties can hold talks and resolve the matter.”

Responding to a question, the source added: “To build confidence in the two parties, Adams opted to meet with the government team in Spain.
“We are suspecting that Adams wants to handle the matter in a mature manner without the prying eyes of those fueling the controversy.”

Asked about the next step, the source added: “The government is weighing options because this is not the first time we had opened talks with P&ID and the firm has always reneged.”

Bloomberg Businessweek described the founder of P&ID as a mechanic and showbiz promoter.
The report indicated that he had infiltrated the Nigerian ruling class up to the extent of serving as a military contractor.

The report said: “Quinn grew up in Drimnagh, a tough neighborhood in Dublin. After leaving school as a teenager in the 1950s, he trained as a mechanic. An ordinary blue-collar life might have beckoned had one of his neighbors not started a show band, the Royal Olympics. These groups were unique to ’60s and ’70s Ireland: shiny-suited young men playing rock ’n’ roll or jazz, perpetually touring church halls and farm sheds to earn shoeboxes full of cash.

The Olympics needed a manager, and soon Quinn had a new career as one of the natty, ruthless handlers a BBC documentary labeled “men in mohair suits.” He ran some top acts: Daddy Cool & the Lollipops, Twink, Dickie Rock. An old friend recalls that he’d approach a singer and say, “How much are you earning? One hundred pounds a gig? I can get you 1,000.”

Quinn stuck with the industry for a while after the show bands’ popularity declined—newspaper reports suggest he arranged an Irish tour by Diana Ross and the Supremes—but there was more money to be made elsewhere.

“At some point in the ’70s he started working in Nigeria, either as an oil trader or a financier of cement deals, depending on which of the scattered accounts of his life you believe.

“He began profiting from a construction boom taking place in Lagos, which was then expanding with such chaotic abandon that hundreds of cement-bearing cargo ships were lined up at port waiting to dock.”

The report gave insights into how the GSPA was conceived and how P&ID became involved.
It added: “In 2008 the Nigerian government said it would end flaring by using oilfield gas to generate electricity. The minister of petroleum resources acknowledged that the challenge would be “enormous.” Converting gas requires it to be captured, transported, refined, and piped back to power plants and onto the grid.

“Officials struggled to persuade big multinationals to invest in the required infrastructure, so concessions were granted to 13 smaller companies, some virtually unknown. One was Process and Industrial Developments Ltd., or P&ID, which was registered in the British Virgin Islands but had no website or track record. Its chairman was Michael “Mick” Quinn, a 68-year-old Irishman with a rakish mustache and decades of experience in Nigeria, mostly as a military contractor.

“Quinn knew powerful people, including the petroleum minister, who guaranteed P&ID a 20-year supply of “wet,” or unrefined, gas for a plant the company would build. The raw material would be supplied for free, to be treated and returned at no cost. P&ID would instead profit from the byproducts, butane and propane. Everyone stood to benefit, not least the villagers whose homes would be lit by electricity rather than the wan glow of flaming methane.

“Then the plan fell apart. The government failed to secure any waste gas from oil companies, let alone link up the necessary pipeline, and the plant was never built. In 2012, P&ID notified the oil ministry that it was suing for breach of contract in a London arbitration forum. After a set of closed legal proceedings, judges awarded P&ID $6.6 billion, one of the biggest amounts a company has won from a sovereign state.

“When Nigeria dragged its feet on payment, P&ID teamed up with a hedge fund and moved the case to public courts, where it could ask judges to seize state assets, including bank accounts and cargo ships.

“In the summer of 2018, a man who’d worked for Quinn contacted Joseph Pizzurro, a veteran New York lawyer hired by Nigeria to lead its defense in the U.S. The caller wanted to talk about the P&ID case. “I don’t think it’s genuine,” the man said, according to an account he gave Bloomberg Businessweek on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety. He told Pizzurro that Quinn had conspired with officials to profit from government projects that were doomed from the start and that P&ID was one of at least three such lawsuits involving Quinn. The caller couldn’t provide enough evidence to substantiate his claims, though, and he didn’t contact Pizzurro again.

“The company and its founders remain elusive. A Nigerian newspaper recently published a list of unanswered questions about the firm: Where are its offices? How many people does it employ? How did such a tiny company win such a large concession? Quinn isn’t around to answer them; he died of cancer in 2015.

“But a close examination of his career, drawn from public records, leaked documents, and interviews with friends and former associates, shows that P&ID wasn’t the only Quinn project to end in disappointment, lawsuits, and corruption allegations. It was just the largest—the one that was supposed to provide his biggest payday.”

https://thenationonlineng.net/9-6b-judgment-pid-owners-son-reaches-out-to-fg-2/

Nigeria don become una highest maga abi?

Thunderrrr

419

Una wan press mumu button abi. Una do well.

I don't even understand what d f**k they are talking about...

Story for the gods

Hmmm...



Observing keenly

If this money is ever paid, P & ID will be 6.5 times richer than Seychelles, and 4.6 times richer than the richest company in Africa.

Will it be paid?

The court has simply enforced the arbitral award under the initial arbitration proceedings.

It is one of the easiest judgement to be executed. Place a lien on Nigeria's foreign reserves, attaching the order of court. Once processed, money gone. No need to get the Nigerian government's approval.

This amount could comfortably have been spent on our educational sector, to upgrade the schools and research centres.

Appeal
What are you appealing against? Court's hands are tied in matters of arbitration, except where fraud is involved. English courts are not Nigerian courts. You can't bend them.

The best deal is to negotiate, but I can't see Nigeria paying below 3 billion dollars, which in any case would still be over 1 trillion naira.

Thrash... reaching out on zero investment. You people and PDP co-horts are not getting a dime.

They should mention those that signed this egoistic contract with them.......

Rather than reach out, it's time to whistle-blow............

Which kind settlement, who will give you $9 hmph.

Na all this kind white men dey teach yahoo boys work. See money wey involve for the matter.

I no even understand the story sef

Trust psy dulladeen to crash for the tc

Since the government is not using the money to develop the country in landmark projects. Let them give P$ID their money
Who the $9b Ebb? Goodluck Jonathan is the most irresponsible leader I have known. He should port to Islam

Conniving scammers and bastards working with some Nigerians to aid its self destruction since 1914.

Really getting hot Quinn grew up in Drimnagh, a tough neighborhood in Dublin, close to crumlin dublin 8 bad area Conor McGregor area.

That long episode for na, just hope Nigeria never get to pay that amount of money because of greedy and selfish leaders.

Since corruption thrives most in a state of confusion and panic. What corrupt politicians/ advisers/public servants usually do is creatively put in place a scheme that is deliberately laden with landmines down the road. Just when the Leader thinks he has a good bargain in a deal, the landmines start going off as programmed. Then they will in turn create of panic in the mind of the leader and stampede him into throwing as much money as requested to quell the arising confusion in order to avoid a scandal. So, while the leader sweats, the treasury bleeds but the corrupt officials smile to bank.

Therefore, no matter how this fu*king P&ID scam case ends, I want to salute President Buhari for his, sometimes annoying, stubbornness and resistance to be stampeded into unclear moves.

How would illiterates in power understand or know what to do!!?

Don’t mention me o! All leaders this country ever had were illeterates except abacha

Hahahahahaha. The son knows its a scam case. Baba wan cash out before tides turn

Nigeria should not pay this guys a dime.

It's obvious dey re trying to profitfrom our ineptitudes and carelessness.

It's obvious d company lacks d capacity to refine the gas and use for generating electricity.

saintora:
Which kind settlement, who will give you $9b that has already been looted and fell into private pocket.

I can bet a million buck u didn't read d story.

Or u lack basic cognizance to even understand it.

Cos What u wrote made no sense

mmmm IS NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT WORKING WITH FOREIGNER TO DEFRAUD NIGERIA? OR ARE SOME NIGERIANS WORKING WITH FOREIGNER TO DEFRAUD NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT? WE ARE WATCHING

With the revelations from Bloomberg, if the FG gets competent Lawyers, they will not only win an appeal against the billion dollars judgement but will actually get the company to pay Nigeria for fraud.
In addition, T.Y. Danjuma's company should also be sueing them for fraud. They should at least be made to refund Danjuma the $40m he gave them for feasibility study which they claimed to have spent from their pocket.
Bunch of fraudsters.

abc115:
Thrash... reaching out on zero investment. You people and PDP co-horts are not getting a dime.

which pdp? the cabals that signed the deal under Yaradua are part of this government. that is why their names remain protected from the media