TheCable

The Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID), an Irish engineering company, says its proposed project could have transformed millions of lives in Nigeria if the federal government had not backed down on their agreement.

A British court had given P&ID the fiat to seize Nigerian assets worth $9 billion.

This followed the non-execution of a 20-year gas and supply processing agreement (GSPA) the company had with the federal government.

But in a statement published by PUNCH, the company said the project could have generated additional 2000 megawatts of electricity for Nigerians.

“We mustn’t forget the entire reason for the P&ID contract in the first place,” the company said.

“It was to take waste gas that was (and still is) being flared into the atmosphere – which is extremely detrimental to the environment and to public health – and process this into feedstock gas for the national grid at no cost to the Nigerian government.

“The P&ID project would have generated up to 2,000 megawatts of power. Such a major increase in the electricity supply brought by the P&ID project could have been transformative for millions of Nigerians.

“At present, the World Bank estimates that only 59 percent of the country have access to reliable supply of electricity.

“The failure of the government to supply the gas is a tragedy for all of those who could have benefitted from the project – and a tragedy for the environment.”

Lai Mohammed, minister of information, has described the agreement as dubious, saying the federal government is confident that it will be upturned.

On his part, Abubakar Malami, minister of justice, said all the people involved in the approval of the gas processing deal with the Irish company will be prosecuted.