The Federal Government has disclosed that its lawyers were still studying the recent judgment of a United Kingdom Commercial Court that dismissed fraud claims in the Oil Processing Licence 245 transaction between Nigeria and JP Morgan Chase Bank.
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made this disclosure while answering questions from State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He pointed out that government’s lawyers will study the judgment after which they would decide whether to appeal or not.
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Africa Daily News, New York reports that the Commercial Court of England and Wales had on Tuesday, given its judgment on the issue in Case No CL-2017-000730 as contained in its 137-paged judgement.
According to the ruling, the Federal Government lost its $1.7bn claim against banking giant, JPMorgan Chase, over the transfer of proceeds from the sale of OPL 245 in 2011.
The government also suffered a similar fate in March 2021, when its application before a Milan court failed.
The application was for an order compelling ENI and Royal Dutch Shell to pay $1.092bn as an immediate advance payment for damages it was claiming, in one of the oil industry’s biggest-ever corruption cases.
Meanwhile, in his reaction to a question on the issue, the minister said: “I also read the judgment on Malabu oil. I think, strangely enough, the judge said we were not able to establish that we lost $1.7bn. But I also read further that the lawyer said that they are studying the judgment and they will take the appropriate step on whether to appeal or not.”
