President Muhammadu Buhari, his Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami (SAN) and erstwhile Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II, have been blamed for last week’s hefty $9.6bn judgement against Nigeria delivered by a British court.

Writing this morning on the judgement rendered in favour of the Process and Industrial Developments Limited for alleged breach of a contract signed in 2010, Nigeria’s large circulating The PUNCH shared the blamed among the trio and the following others: late President Umar Yar’Adua; former President Goodluck Jonathan; ex-Minister of Justice and AGF Michael Aondoakaa; late Minister of Petroleum Resources Rilwan Lukman; immediate past governor of Cross River State Liyel Imoke; and one-time Minister of Finance, Dr Mansur Mukhtar.

On Buhari and Malami’s roles in the saga, The PUNCH wrote: “President Buhari inherited the controversial contract when he assumed office on May 29, 2015. The controversy that surrounds it could have been settled by him with good negotiation.

“However, he must have been too busy with preliminaries of taking over power to be bothered about settling a project that was not executed with $850m.

“The President also failed to appoint a minister to take charge of legal affairs until November 2015.

“An official of the Ministry of Justice had told a London court that the handover to a new government was responsible for the delay in implementing decisions reached with the P&ID.

“Malami is the current Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation. He has been in charge of the contract suit since he assumed office.

“Although he assumed office when the arbitration had awarded the $9.6bn judgment to the P&ID, the company accuses him of ignoring an offer of $850m to settle the case out of arbitration.”

On Sanusi, who prior to his emergence as Emir of Kano was known as Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the paper wrote: “Lamido Sanusi was the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria at the time the Federal Government entered into the contract with P&ID on January 11, 2010.

“It could not be determined what role he must have played when the contract was signed. However, it is usual for the chief banker of the nation to be aware of contracts that will commit the nation to foreign exchange transactions.”

News Express reports that President Buhari has ordered exhaustive investigation of the saga while Malami has vowed that all those implicated would be dealt with.

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