Process and Industrial Developments Limited, P&ID has released a statement condemning what they called ‘sham trial’ of those linked to the company and or the failed GSPA contact by the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
P&ID reacting to the conviction of commercial director Mohammed Kuchazi and the company’s director of the process, Adamu Usman linked to the GSPA contract, and forfeiture of the company’s assets said the anti-graft agency did not afford the convicted individual due process but instead intimidated them into making false statements.
The statement by the company reads:
Statement from P&ID following today’s Sham Trial in Abuja
“Today’s sham trial in Nigeria is entirely illegitimate and follows a systematic campaign of harassment, intimidation and illegal detention of several individuals associated with P&ID or the GSPA contract. The individuals detained have not been afforded due process and have instead been pressured and intimidated by the government into making false statements.
“Nigeria’s Attorney General Abubakar Malami has publicly acknowledged that he aims to provoke global opposition against P&ID, by undertaking this EFCC ‘investigation’.
“None of the individuals involved are current employees or representatives of P&ID. P&ID itself has received no communication from any Nigerian authority about the investigation or today’s hearing. There has been no evidence produced, no defence allowed, no charges laid, no due process followed.
“The EFCC’s investigation is an attempt to produce false evidence and is being conducted in blatant disregard of basic human rights and the rule of law. P&ID calls on the Government of Nigeria to accept its responsibilities under the law and to cease this sham investigation” the statement added.
EFCC had on Friday 20th September 2019 released a statement on the conviction of the directors and winding up of the company, after they were convicted by Justice I. E. Ekwo of Federal High Court, sitting in Maitama, Abuja.
According to the statement by EFCC, the judge sentenced the company, incorporated in British Virgin Island to wind up in Nigeria and its properties, forfeited to the federal government.
The P&ID Directors were arraigned on 11-count charges, bordering on obtaining by false pretence; dealing in petroleum products without an appropriate license; money laundering and failure to register P&ID with the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML) as required by law, amounting to economic sabotage against the Nigerian state.
One of the charges reads: “That you, Process and Industrial Development Limited, being a company, incorporated in the British Virgin Island, Michael Quinn (deceased), Brendan Cahill (at large), Neil Hitchcock (deceased), Muhammad Kuchazi and Grace Taiga on or about the 11th of January, 2010 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court with intent to defraud made a false statement in Paragraph 8 (g) of the Gas Supply and Processing Agreement (GSPA) to wit: the parties are aware that the 24-inch Adanga Pipeline, presently under construction from the Addax operated OML 123 directly to Calabar and due for completion in 2010 which part of the said agreement you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 362 (a) of the Penal Code and punishable under Section 364 of the same law.”
The defendants pleaded guilty to all the eleven count charges.