The Federal Government of Nigeria is moving to extradite two Indians to Nigeria to answer for allegations of breach of contract made against them and their company following their refusal to honour several invitations.
Three years after a law firm, LAWLEAD Consult, petitioned the Inspector-General of Police to investigate alleged cases of criminal breach of trust and forgery against an Indian firm over a $25 million transformer deal, the suspects are yet to honour the invitation of the Nigeria Police through INTERPOL.
In the petition signed by Abubakar Yahaya Ndakene, the law firm called for the investigation of the chairman of Transformers and Rectifiers (Indian) Limited, Jitendra Mamtora, and the managing director, Satyen Mamtora, to answer the allegations against them and their company.
Transformers and Rectifiers (Indian) Limited had secured a $25 million transformer deal to supply transformers to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), in a World Bank-funded project, midwifed by their Nigerian agent, P-NEC Nigeria Ltd.
It was learnt that after using the Nigerian firm to secure the job, the Indian firm failed to pay the agreed commission of about 10 per cent to the Nigerian counterpart, which triggered a legal battle between the two parties in 2020.
However, despite several letters of invitation sent to the Indian company and their executives from INTERPOL and having knowledge of the pending court case in Nigeria, the Indians declined to show up in court but sent legal representations from India to observe proceedings any time the case was called.
But in response, INTERPOL, after receiving the petition and carrying out their investigation, placed Jitendra Mamtora and Satyen Mamtora on red notice, which led to the arrest of the former in Italy.
However, after the detention of Jitendra Mamtora in Italy, he moved to India and the Indian INTERPOL notified INTERPOL Nigeria of his arrival and requested that INTERPOL Nigeria follow diplomatic channels for the extradition of the suspect.
It was based on that development that the Nigerian Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, immediately signed extradition requests and dispatched same to India to release the suspects to Nigeria to face trial.
One of the complaints against the Indians by the petitioners is for alleged forgery of a court affidavit in Nigeria.
On whether full payment has been made to the Indian company for the supply of the transformers, the source told one of our correspondents that the Indian company had collected 90 per cent of the contract sum, leaving a balance of 10 per cent retention which is to be collected after the completion of the contract.
It was gathered that the pending case of extradition against the Indian suspects comes up at the Federal High Court 10, sitting in Abuja, presided by Justice Evelyn Maha on Monday, April 15, 2024.
