Grace Taiga, a former director in
the ministry of petroleum resources, has been remanded in Suleja prison, Niger
state, over the Process & Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) deal.
A high court in the federal
capital territory (FCT) remanded Taiga in prison after she pleaded “not guilty”
to an eight-count charge of fraud levelled against her by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission.
She is accused of receiving
$20,000 as kickback in ensuring that the deal — gas supply and processing
agreement between Nigeria and P&ID — was successful.
After taking her plea to the
charges at the court on Friday, Olukayode Adeniyi, the judge, remanded the
ex-director in prison until September 25 when her bail application will be
heard.
“That you, PROCESS AND INDUSTRIAL
DEVELOPMENTS LlMiTED being a company incorporated in the British Virgin Island
(convicted), MiCHAEL QUINN (deceased), BRENDAN CAHILL (at large), NEIL
HITCHCOCK (deceased), and GRACE TAIGA on or about the 11th January, 2010 in
Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud
made a false statement in paragraph 8 (g) of the GAS SUPPLY AND PROCESSING
AGREEMENT (“GSPA”) to wit: the parties are aware that the 24inch Adanga
pipeline presently under construction from the Addax operated OML 123 directly
to Calabar and due for completion in 2010 which part of the said agreement you
knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 362
(a) of the Penal Code Law and punishable under section 364 of the same law,”
one of the counts against her read.
The latest case is coming a day
after a federal high court in Abuja convicted two representatives of P&ID.
The court also ordered the
forfeiture of assets linked to P&ID to the government over tax evasion.
P&ID had won a $9.6 billion
judgement against Nigerian in a British court. And Nigeria is seeking to have
the verdict upturned.
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