A director of Process and Industrial Development Limited, James Nolan, has been arrested by the International Criminal Police Organisation.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Nolan, an Irish national, who allegedly jumped bail in 2022 in the ongoing $9.6bn P&ID scandal in Nigeria, was arrested by the INTERPOL in Italy on January 27 during a visit he paid to his wife.
A source in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission confirmed the information, according to NAN.
“Yes, we got the information through informant sources,” the official said.
The source said the next line of action was for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to apply to INTERPOL for Nolan’s extradition back to Nigeria to stand his trial.
NAN reports that counsel for Nolan, Paul Erokoro, SAN, in a telephone chat, said he had also heard about the report.
He said: “There is a report that James Nolan was arrested but the EFCC is actually in the better position to confirm. They might have heard from INTERPOL. But I have not spoken to him (Nolan) and I don’t have firsthand confirmation but I have heard about the report.”
According to NAN, Nolan, who also has British citizenship, was at the centre of the controversial Gas Supply Processing Agreement which was signed in 2010.
After he was arraigned and he pleaded not guilty to the counts preferred against him, a Federal High Court, Abuja, on November 7, 2019, granted him a N500 million bail but the bail was later varied to N100 million due to his inability to meet the bail condition.
However, after he perfected his bail conditions, he failed to appear in court for trial since 2022.
A sister court, where the embattled Irish was also standing trial had, on September 28, 2022, revoked his bail.
The then presiding judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed (now elevated to Appeal Court), in a ruling, issued a bench warrant for his arrest for jumping bail.
Mohammed ordered that Nolan should be arrested by security agencies, including INTERPOL, anywhere he was sighted within or outside Nigeria and be produced in court to stand trial.
“As far as this court is concerned, the absence of the second defendant (Nolan) in court implies he has jumped bail,” he had said.
The judge gave the order after the anti-graft agency’s lawyer, Bala Sanga, made an application to that effect.
He equally granted the EFCC’s request to continue his trial in absentia.
Also a brother judge, Justice Obiora Egwuatu, on July 6, 2023, ordered Nolan’s surety, George Kadiri, to forfeit his N100 million bail bond to the Federal Government over his inability to produce the defendant in court.
Justice Egwuatu, in a ruling after Sanga moved the motion, also ordered Kadiri, who was absent in court, to be remanded in prison custody until the payment of the N100 million.
NAN reports that Nolan is standing trial in about eight other cases for his alleged involvement in the controversial gas supply agreement with the Federal Government.
The contract became the subject of litigation following the award of a whopping sum of $9.6bn judgment debt against Nigeria.
While eight of the matters are before the FHC in Abuja, a case is before the FCT High Court, besides the London case.
