$9.6bn Judgment debt: Court grants Briton N500m bail

….Demands serving senator as surety

By Vivian Okejeme, Abuja

Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja has granted bail to a British national, James Richard Nolan in the tune of N500 million.
The court ordered that a serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who is not facing criminal charge in court must be a surety in the like sum.
Nolan, a signatory to Process and Industrial Development limited (P&ID) is allegedly involved in the scandalous P&ID deal which made a British Court enter a $9.6bn judgement against Nigeria.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had on October 21, arraigned Nolan and Adam Quinn (at large), both British nationals, over their alleged complicity in the $9.6billion dollars judgment against Nigeria.
Process and Industrial Development (P&ID), an Irish engineering company, had secured the controversial judgment against Nigeria following the non-execution of a 20-year gas and supply processing agreement the company had with the Federal Government.
The defendants, both directors of Goidel Resources Limited, a Designated Non-Financial Institution and ICIL Limited, were arraigned on a 16-count charge bordering on money laundering.
Delivering ruling on the bail application of Nolan on Thursday, the court ordered the Nigeria Immigration Service to provide original passports and passport number of Nolan.
The senator according to the court must own a developed landed property in Maitama with certificate of occupancy and relevant documents duly certified by the FCDA and the Chief Registrar of the court must in writing, ascertain the validity of the documents.
Justice Abang directed that the surety must appear in court on all days of trial alongside the applicant, and must tender evidence of tax clearance for three years.
The court held that where the surety failed to do abide by the terms, the bail would be rescinded, adding that the applicant must submit his international passport to the Registrars of the court.