The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) re-arrested a British national, James Nolan, before Justice Donatus Okorowo of a Federal High Court (FHC) in Abuja on Monday.
The EFCC re-arrested Nolan and two others on an updated 32-count money laundering allegation. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), while the two businesses, Goidel Resources Limited, a Designated Non-Financial Institution (DNFI), and ICIL Limited, are the first and second defendants, respectively, Nolan is the third defendant in the case.
He was re-arrested for his role in the shady contract granted to Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID).
The re-arraignment came after the former trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, was transferred to the Warri division of the court earlier this year.
When the case was summoned, EFCC lawyer Ekele Iheanacho informed the court that a 32-count charge had been brought before the court on Nov. 20, 2019, and requested that the charges be read to the defendants so that their plea could be taken.
Mr Nolan, who is a director in the first and second defendants and previously took a plea on their behalf when the issue came before Justice Abang, declined to take a plea on their behalf. Nolan’s lawyer, Michael Ajara, also informed the court that he was not representing the 1st and 2nd defendants at the proceeding.
However, Iheanacho requested the court to enter a not-guilty plea on the counts affecting the first and second defendants in accordance with Section 478 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.
He further informed the court that, according to the Supreme Court decision in Effiom vs. the State, counsel is not needed to be present when the accused individual enters a plea. The registrar was then ordered by Justice Okorowo to read the counts to the defendants.
While the corporations pled not guilty, the third defendant also pleaded not guilty.
After the plea, the prosecutor applied for a trial date and Ajara urged the court to grant bail to the Nolan, who was already on bail granted by Justice Abang and varied by the Court of Appeal.
As a result, the judge granted bail to the third defendant in accordance with the terms indicated in the appellate court’s ruling, which differed from the terms of bail given by Abang. Okorowo postponed the case to December 13 for the start of the trial.
According to NAN, Nolan was re-arrested by the anti-graft agency on November 21, 2019. The Briton and his co-accused person, Adam Quinn (who is currently at large), were arrested on a 16-count money laundering allegation on Oct. 21, 2019.
The defendants are both directors of the two firms accused of money laundering.
Nolan is also believed to be a P&ID account signatory.
It would be recalled that P&ID had approached a British court to seek compensation, claiming the Nigeria government breached a 2010 gas contract agreement.
The government had contracted P&ID to build gas processing facilities around Calabar, Cross River. According to the contract, the government was required to supply wet gas of up to 400 million cubic feet daily.
The court initially granted the firm an arbitral award of $6.6 billion. But the figure rose to about $9 billion with an additional $2.3 billion in accumulated interest at 7 per cent rate, after Nigeria refused to enter an appeal for more than five years after the original ruling.
The Nigerian government had appealed the British court ruling and secured an order delaying the execution of the court judgment.
The government says the contract was fraudulent ab initio and that both parties (including the Nigerian officials who signed for Nigeria) signed it to defraud the Nigerian government.
The contract was said to have been signed by Nigeria’s former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who has various corruption cases against her.
She is currently in London where she is being investigated for money laundering. A former petroleum ministry official who signed the contract as a witness is also being prosecuted.
