There appears to be a silver
lining over the controversial $9.6billion judgment debt with a son of the owner of Process and Industrial
Developments (P&ID) reaching
out to the Federal Government for an
amicable resolution of the issue in dispute.
Adams Quinn, popularly called
Adamu by his numerous friends from the North, is in contact with government, sources said on Saturday.
He has proposed a meeting
with government in Madrid, Spain.
There were indications, on
Saturday, that government was weighing all options, including a strong legal
opinion that the case against P&ID was winnable.
A report has shown that the Irish
founder of P&ID was a mechanic before moving into show business.
Bloomberg Businessweek revealed
that he started as a military contractor.
He was said to have benefited
from the cement armada in Lagos ports in the 70s before becoming an oil trader.
Although he registered P&ID
in British Virgin Islands, the firm had no track record.
Investigation by our
correspondent revealed that Adams was disturbed by the way the image of his
late father, Michael Quinn, was being dragged in the mud after over 40 years of
business in Nigeria.
It was learnt that a member of
the Quinns family has been central to
the latest move to resolve the judgment debt.
A presidency source said: “There
is a fresh offer from the son of the founder of P&ID for fresh talks and negotiation with the
Federal Government. Adams Quinn is just
interested in amicable resolution of the issue in dispute.
“He does not like the controversy
over the $9.6billion judgment, especially the aspersions being cast on his
family.
“From what he told the
intermediaries, Adams position is that given over 40 years of business
relationship between his father and Nigeria, the two parties can hold talks and
resolve the matter.”
Responding to a question, the
source added: “To build confidence in the two parties, Adams opted to meet with
the government team in Spain.
“We are suspecting that Adams
wants to handle the matter in a mature manner without the prying eyes of those
fueling the controversy.”
Asked about the next step, the
source added: “The government is weighing options because this is not the first
time we had opened talks with P&ID and the firm has always reneged.”
Bloomberg Businessweek described
the founder of P&ID as a mechanic
and showbiz promoter.
The report indicated that he had
infiltrated the Nigerian ruling class up to the extent of serving as a military
contractor.
The report said: “Quinn grew up
in Drimnagh, a tough neighborhood in Dublin. After leaving school as a teenager
in the 1950s, he trained as a mechanic. An ordinary blue-collar life might have
beckoned had one of his neighbors not started a show band, the Royal Olympics.
These groups were unique to ’60s and ’70s Ireland: shiny-suited young men
playing rock ’n’ roll or jazz, perpetually touring church halls and farm sheds
to earn shoeboxes full of cash.
The Olympics needed a manager,
and soon Quinn had a new career as one of the natty, ruthless handlers a BBC
documentary labeled “men in mohair suits.” He ran some top acts: Daddy Cool
& the Lollipops, Twink, Dickie Rock. An old friend recalls that he’d approach
a singer and say, “How much are you earning? One hundred pounds a gig? I can
get you 1,000.”
Quinn stuck with the industry for
a while after the show bands’ popularity declined—newspaper reports suggest he
arranged an Irish tour by Diana Ross and the Supremes—but there was more money
to be made elsewhere.
“At some point in the ’70s he
started working in Nigeria, either as an oil trader or a financier of cement
deals, depending on which of the scattered accounts of his life you believe.
“He began profiting from a
construction boom taking place in Lagos, which was then expanding with such
chaotic abandon that hundreds of cement-bearing cargo ships were lined up at
port waiting to dock.”
The report gave insights into how
the GSPA was conceived and how P&ID became involved.
It added: “In 2008 the Nigerian
government said it would end flaring by using oilfield gas to generate
electricity. The minister of petroleum resources acknowledged that the
challenge would be “enormous.” Converting gas requires it to be captured,
transported, refined, and piped back to power plants and onto the grid.
“Officials struggled to persuade
big multinationals to invest in the required infrastructure, so concessions
were granted to 13 smaller companies, some virtually unknown. One was Process
and Industrial Developments Ltd., or P&ID, which was registered in the
British Virgin Islands but had no website or track record. Its chairman was
Michael “Mick” Quinn, a 68-year-old Irishman with a rakish mustache and decades
of experience in Nigeria, mostly as a military contractor.
“Quinn knew powerful people,
including the petroleum minister, who guaranteed P&ID a 20-year supply of
“wet,” or unrefined, gas for a plant the company would build. The raw material
would be supplied for free, to be treated and returned at no cost. P&ID
would instead profit from the byproducts, butane and propane. Everyone stood to
benefit, not least the villagers whose homes would be lit by electricity rather
than the wan glow of flaming methane.
“Then the plan fell apart. The
government failed to secure any waste gas from oil companies, let alone link up
the necessary pipeline, and the plant was never built. In 2012, P&ID
notified the oil ministry that it was suing for breach of contract in a London
arbitration forum. After a set of closed legal proceedings, judges awarded
P&ID $6.6 billion, one of the biggest amounts a company has won from a
sovereign state.
“When Nigeria dragged its feet on
payment, P&ID teamed up with a hedge fund and moved the case to public
courts, where it could ask judges to seize state assets, including bank
accounts and cargo ships.
“In the summer of 2018, a man
who’d worked for Quinn contacted Joseph Pizzurro, a veteran New York lawyer
hired by Nigeria to lead its defense in the U.S. The caller wanted to talk
about the P&ID case. “I don’t think it’s genuine,” the man said, according
to an account he gave Bloomberg
Businessweek on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety. He
told Pizzurro that Quinn had conspired with officials to profit from government
projects that were doomed from the start and that P&ID was one of at least
three such lawsuits involving Quinn. The caller couldn’t provide enough
evidence to substantiate his claims, though, and he didn’t contact Pizzurro
again.
“The company and its founders
remain elusive. A Nigerian newspaper recently published a list of unanswered
questions about the firm: Where are its offices? How many people does it
employ? How did such a tiny company win such a large concession? Quinn isn’t
around to answer them; he died of cancer in 2015.
“But a close examination of his
career, drawn from public records, leaked documents, and interviews with
friends and former associates, shows that P&ID wasn’t the only Quinn
project to end in disappointment, lawsuits, and corruption allegations. It was
just the largest—the one that was supposed to provide his biggest payday.”
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