Nigeria’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Abubakar Malami says henceforth his ministry will vet certain categories of contracts before they are signed by any Federal Government agency.

Speaking in Abuja on Thursday shortly after resuming as Justice Minister following his re-appointment, Malami said the decision was aimed at curbing the endemic corruption in the nation’s public service, and to rid the country of all financial institutions which aid and abet unethical practices.

The Minister cited and expressed concern over the recent United Kingdom’s court judgment which awarded $9.9 billion against  Nigeria in the case involving the Nigerian government and a British company, Process & Industrial Developments Ltd.    

The court presided over by Justice Butcher had on Friday last week ruled that Process & Industrial Developments Ltd., an engineering and project management company had the right to seize assets worth $9 billion belonging to the Nigerian government. 

The ruling bordered on a 2010 contract which Nigeria signed with P& ID to the intent that the latter would build a state-of-the-art gas processing plant to refine natural gas ( wet gas) into ‘lean gas’ which Nigeria would use to power its national electricity grid.

The agreement however suffered a setback and  P& ID won a $6.6 billion arbitration against the Federal Government. The interest accrual on the money since the ruling brought the total sum to $9 billion.