The camp of former president, Goodluck Jonathan has accused Buhari administration of trying to make a case against former President Goodluck Jonathan by claiming that he is responsible for the $9 billion judgment against Nigeria in the United Kingdom in a case brought against the nation by Messrs P & ID.
Former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, in a statement on Saturday, said the attempt to rewrite history will backfire.
Omokri said part of the filings regarding the case read: “P&ID submits that it entered a gas supply and processing agreement with Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources in January 2010. Pursuant to the agreement, P&ID claims that it would build the necessary facilities and then refine natural gas into non associated natural gas for a period of 20 years.”
According to him: “Now, Nigerians should stop there and ponder. This transaction occurred in January of 2010. Former President Jonathan was not President in January 2010. During that time, he was completely shut out of power by an unelected cabal that ran Nigeria during the period of the ill health of the late President Yar’adua, before the National Assembly courageously intervened on February 9, 2010.
“That cabal not only fought against the ascension of then Vice President Jonathan to the office of acting President, but went beyond that to take documents, including budgets and contracts, to Saudi Arabia, and claimed that the then ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’adua had signed them.
“Nigerians may recall that the cabal announced on December 28, 2009 that the ailing President Yar’adua had signed a supplementary budget and other documents from his sick bed in Saudi Arabia, without the foreknowledge or acquiescence of then Vice President Jonathan or the Executive Council of the Federation.
“In fact, a week later, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) came out with an exposé alleging that the signatures on the documents were forged and Femi Falana (SAN) took up the case in court.
“The man who packaged and arranged the signing of the contract with P & ID was a member of the cabal and Yar’adua’s minister for petroleum, the late Rilwanu Lukman.
“Mr. Lukman and other members of the cabal treated then Vice President Jonathan with disdain and kept him in the dark about their actions because he had no executive authority, as the then President was unable to hand over to him as constitutionally stipulated due to the suddenness of his ill health.
“That same cabal has resurrected and has now coalesced around President Muhammadu Buhari, with some of them being made either ministers, or formal and informal advisers. As a matter of fact, the main man behind that cabal is now one of the closest persons to General Buhari.
“Nigerians may want to note that while this controversial contract was signed in January of 2010, former President Jonathan only became acting President on February 9, 2010.
“So, if the Buhari administration is looking for someone to blame for this judgment against Nigeria, it should look at its own cabal.”
Let me summarize, for those too lazy do small research.
After Yaradua’s death, the cabal took over government for close to 6months, completely shutting GEJ out of government. Within this time, Late Rilwane Lukman who was the petroleum minister at the time quickly packaged a fraudulent deal with P & ID and signed Nigeria’s future away.
When GEJ finally took over, the deal was reviewed and found to be bad market for Nigeria, so he insisted that the deal be renegotiated. P&ID refused, knowing fully well what they got from Rilwane and instead took Nigeria to arbitration. In 2013, they won the arbitration and were awarded about $6billion, being the money they would have earned if the deal had gone ahead, whereas, Nigeria would have earned next to nothing.
GEJ, the diplomatic man that he is sent Diezani, Okonjo Iweala and some other guys to Ireland to negotiate an out of court settlement with P&ID. Finally, early 2015, P&ID agreed to take $850million instead of $6billion.
But GEJ then handed over to Buhari who first wasted 6months before facing governance. Then he made himself petroleum minister and without even understanding the details of the deal and subsequent arbitration and out of court settlement, and in a bid to vilify his predecessor, Buhari refused to pay the $850million and went back to court. Ultimately, he lost the case, as expected and because it’s been 6years since the original arbitration, the money plus interest accrued is now $8.9billion.
P&ID are no longer interested in the out of court settlement and have now been given authority to take over all of Nigeria’s assets in the UK to the tune of $8.9billion. if they don’t get up to that amount in the UK, they will also take their case to the EU and US until every penny is paid. Worse, every day that passes, the money continues to yield interest.
In conclusion, a criminal cabal created this mess for us, GEJ did his best to minimize the effect of the mess, but Buhari, in a bid to spite GEJ spoiled everything. Now here we are…..
What the people of Nigeria need is a referendum to end this evil contraption called Nigeria and an emergence of the stifled nations within.
We CAN NOT be silent about it. He that is silent in the days of the adversity of the oppressed, is more guilty and has taken the side of the oppressor.
