<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Olushola Daniel<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed May 11 for judgment in the case filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against James Nolan, a British national and director of Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) Ltd, over his alleged involvement in the controversial $9.6 billion P&ID contract scam.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu fixed the date on Friday after counsel to the EFCC, Bala Sanga, and defence counsel, Michael Ajara, adopted their final written addresses and presented arguments for and against the case.
Earlier in the proceedings, Nolan had informed the court through his lawyer that he would not call any witnesses in his defence. The Briton, who is currently standing trial in connection with the high-profile scandal, stated that he would rely solely on the evidence already presented by the prosecution.
Nolan had jumped bail around September 2022 and fled Nigeria after initially standing trial before the court. However, his counsel told the court that the defence would not present additional evidence beyond the materials already tendered by the prosecution.
Following the adoption of the final addresses, Justice Egwuatu adjourned the matter for judgment, bringing the long-running trial closer to its conclusion after several earlier adjournments.
The EFCC had arraigned Nolan alongside Micad Project City Service, a subsidiary of P&ID Ltd, in a charge marked FHC\/ABJ\/CR\/9\/22.
Both defendants were first arraigned in May 2022 and pleaded not guilty to the charges.
At the commencement of the trial, Nolan was remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre pending the determination of his bail application. He was later granted bail after meeting the conditions set by the court, including a N100 million bond and a surety in like sum.
However, Nolan subsequently stopped appearing in court and fled the country. Following his escape, the court declared him wanted and issued an order for his arrest anywhere he might be found.
The EFCC thereafter applied for the trial to proceed in absentia, an application that was granted by the court.
Reports later indicated that Nolan was re-arrested by the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) in Italy on January 27, 2024, during a visit to see his wife. He is yet to be extradited to Nigeria to face the charges.
Meanwhile, in a related development, another Federal High Court presided over by Justice Donatus Okorowo\u2014now elevated to the Court of Appeal\u2014on July 3, 2024, ordered the winding up of two companies linked to Nolan over their roles in the P&ID fraud.
In two separate judgments, the court found the firms guilty of money laundering offences and ordered that their assets be forfeited to the Federal Government.
The companies are Trinity Biotech Nigeria Limited and Resorts Express Concept Nigeria Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Olushola Daniel The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed May 11 for judgment in the case filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against James Nolan, a British national and director of Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) Ltd, over his alleged involvement in the controversial $9.6 billion P&ID contract scam.Justice Obiora […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mlcqvjhyzqda.i.optimole.com\/cb:UNMm.7bb\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/frontlinenewsng.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/images-83.jpeg?fit=387%2C516&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4175,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173\/revisions\/4175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}