ANEEJ Commends FG Over $11bn P&ID Judgement

A group, Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ)has applauded the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for demonstrating transparency and accountability that led to the recent judgement delivered in favour of Nigeria in the controversial $11 billion arbitration awarded earlier to P&ID.

At a press conference on the verdict, the executive director of ANEEJ, Rev David Ugolor, said for several years, the federal government had been involved in a battle with Process & Industrial Development Ltd when the company accused the country of botching a deal by failing to provide gas to them.

Nigeria had suffered a $6.6 billion judgement debt in 2017 when the arbitration tribunal ordered the country to pay P&ID with interest to start counting from March 2013.

P&ID, in its claims, said Nigeria violated the terms of its agreement by failing to provide gas for the power plant it wants to build for the country. The government of former president Goodluck Jonathan, sadly reached an out-of-tribunal agreement for the payment of $850 million and passed on disbursement to the administration of President Buhari

“You would recall that on Monday the Business and Property Court in London stopped the enforcement of the $11bn arbitration award in favour of P&ID against Nigeria in a case marked CL-2019-000752,” he said.

According to him, the judge, Robin Knowles found that the massive arbitration award in favour of Process & Industrial Development Ltd. (P&ID) was tainted by fraud. In his words: “The awards were obtained by fraud. The way in which the awards were procured was contrary to public policy.”

“We are enthused that Nigeria was able to establish a strong prima facie case that the 2010 gas project agreement between the government and P&ID was procured by bribes paid to insiders as part of a larger scheme to defraud Nigeria.”

Ugolor noted that former President Muhammadu Buhari baulked at the idea of paying the negotiated sum, set aside the settlement agreement, and challenged the enforcement of the award before the English Commercial Court. But the London court added $2.4 billion in interest, making it $9bn.

He said luckily, the judge granted Nigeria’s request for a stay on any asset seizures while its legal challenge is pending but ordered it to pay $200 million to the court within 60 days to ensure the stay. Nigeria was also to pay some court costs to P&ID within 14 days.