The Federal Government has asked a court in New York, the United States of America, to compel 10 foreign banks to release to it account details of former President Goodluck Jonathan, his wife, Patience, and the then Minister of Petroleum Resources in his administration, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.
But Jonathan on Tuesday denied owning a foreign bank account.
Bloomberg reports that the banks from whom the Federal Government is seeking the documents include, Citigroup and JPMorgan, as well as the New York branches of Deutsche Bank AG and United Bank for Africa Plc.
The Federal Government’s request was contained in an application filed at the foreign court on March 24 asking for the bank documents.
The Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, is said to have asked for the bank documents in its bid to overturn the P&ID $9.6bn judgment.
The $9.6bn award was issued against Nigeria and in favour of P&ID in a January 31, 2017 ruling of a London arbitration tribunal, which held the Federal Government liable for the breach of a 20-year gas supply agreement signed in 2010 between P&ID and Nigeria, through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
The London Commercial Court in a judgment delivered on August 16, 2019 gave P&ID a go-ahead to enforce the London arbitration panel’s award of the sum of $9.6bn.
But the Federal Government is seeking to overturn the award.
According to Bloomberg, the Federal Government, is seeking the bank documents to enable it to prove that the $9.6bn arbitration was obtained by Process and Industrial Development by fraud.
The Federal Government said in the court document that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is probing the roles of two former petroleum ministers, the late Rilwanu Lukman and his successor, Alison-Madueke.
It, however, said it had yet to find “direct evidence” that Jonathan, Alison-Madueke and other politicians received payments from P&ID or its affiliates, the country said in its court filings
