UPDATE 3-Nigeria says it will not relinquish assets in $9 bln gas project dispute

* P&ID won arbitration decision over Nigerian gas dispute
* UK judge said firm has right to try to seize assets
* Nigeria taking all steps to appeal judgment, says minister

(Adds attorney general quote)
By Camillus Eboh
ABUJA, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Nigeria will not relinquish assets
to a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands following a
court ruling related to a $9 billion gas project dispute, the
West African country's information minister said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month a judge in London granted Process and
Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) the right to attempt to seize
some $9 billion in assets from the Nigerian government over an
aborted gas project.
The $9 billion sum would be one of the largest financial
penalties imposed on Nigeria, representing 20% of the currency
reserves of Africa's largest economy and top oil producer.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed - addressing journalists
alongside the finance minister, attorney general and central
bank governor in the capital, Abuja - said it would not
relinquish any assets.
"The federal government is taking all necessary steps to
appeal the decision of the UK Court, to seek a stay of execution
of the decision, to defend its rights and to protect the assets
of the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria," he said.
The company was awarded $6.6 billion in an arbitration
decision over a failed project to build a gas processing plant
in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar. The award was based on
what the firm could have earned during the 20-year agreement as
part of a deal struck in 2010.
The judge's decision converted the arbitration award to a
legal judgment and the sum rose to around $9 billion with
interest accrued since 2013.
"This award is unreasonable, an assault on every Nigerian
and unfair," the finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, told
journalists.
And the attorney general said he believed the contract
signed by a previous administration with P&ID, a little-known
firm founded by two Irish businessmen specifically for the
project, was "designed essentially to fail right from
conception".
"There is need for comprehensive criminal investigations to
unravel the undertone of the contract," he said.
He said the agreement with P&ID should have involved
international oil companies and Nigerian Petroleum Development
Company (NPDC), the country's main gas producer.
Tuesday's news conference is the latest response from
Nigerian authorities following the ruling.
Last week Nigeria's central bank said it would strive to
protect the country's currency reserves following the judgment,
though it did not outline measures the bank might
take.