Nigeria has finally succeeded in stopping the enforcement of the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) against the country.
A judgement delivered by Justice Robin Knowles of the Commercial Court of England and Wales upheld Nigeria’s prayer on the grounds that the ill-fated gas processing contract was obtained by fraud.
On January 31, 2017, a private arbitration tribunal ordered Nigeria to pay $6.6 billion to P&ID plus interest beginning from March 20, 2013.
Following the judgement, Nigeria applied for an extension of time and relief from sanctions.
The application was granted in September 2020 by Ross Cranston, a judge of the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales.
Nigeria had alleged that the gas deal was a scam conceived to defraud the country.
Lawyers representing the federal government told the court that P&ID officials paid bribes to secure the contract, but P&ID denied the allegation and accused the Nigerian government of “false allegations and wild conspiracy theories”.
Tinubu Reacts To Nigeria’s $11.5bn Legal Victory Over P&ID, Says Its A Win For Developing World
P&ID claimed Nigeria violated the terms of its agreement by failing to provide gas for the power plant it wanted to build for the country.
This, it said, frustrated the construction of the gas project during the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and deprived P&ID the potential benefits expected from 20 years’ worth of gas supplies with “anticipated profits of $5 billion to $6 billion.”
The arbitral tribunal had unanimously decided that the federal government had repudiated the GSPA by failure to perform its obligations under the GSPA and awarded P&ID was entitled to $6.6 billion in 2017. That fine along with interest had now risen to $11.5billion.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government reached an out-of-tribunal agreement for the payment of $850 million and passed on disbursement to the administration of President Buhari.
However, Buhari had balked 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.
The judge granted Nigeria’s request for a stay on any asset seizures while its legal challenge was pending, but ordered it to pay $200 million to the court within 60 days to ensure the stay. It also ordered Nigeria to pay some court costs to P&ID within 14 days.
The original decision on August 16 converted an arbitration award held by P&ID to a legal judgement, which would allow the British Virgin Islands-based firm to try to seize international assets.
Nigeria then began investigating the company through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and found evidence of two bank transfers totalling $20,000 made by Dublin-based Industrial Consultants (International) Ltd. — part of the P&ID group of companies – to Grace Taiga, a Nigerian government lawyer who oversaw the award of the gas plant contract.
The payments, in 2017 and 2018, were made from an Industrial Consultants account at Allied Irish Banks and were purportedly for “medical costs,” Bala Sanga, the lead prosecutor, said in the interview.
Based on this new evidence, Nigeria filed fraud challenges against P&1D but the company failed to respond to the charges.
“It is increasingly clear that this was a highly orchestrated scam, involving a cover-up by ministers at the highest levels of office in the previous administration,” said a spokesperson for the attorney general.
“These officials, who were entrusted to safeguard the future and assets of Nigeria, knowingly entered into the sham GSPA, and deliberately failed to defend the Federation in the ensuing arbitral proceedings,” the statement said.
The statement further said that P&ID’s lawyers had not been able to prove that it legitimately, and lawfully, secured a 20-year contract worth hundreds of millions of Naira.
“The company has yet to even demonstrate that they had the credentials in the first place to carry out such a complex arrangement, nor provide any evidence of tangible investment or land-holding.”
Tinubu Lauds UK Court Over P&ID Judgement
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has applauded the judgement of Judge Robin Knowles of the Business and Property Court in London, which awarded a landmark victory to Nigeria over a firm known as Process & Industry Development (P&ID) Limited.
President Tinubu, in a statement by presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, commended the UK Court for prioritising the merits of the case above all other considerations.
“This landmark judgement proves conclusively that nation-states will no longer be held hostage by economic conspiracies between private firms and solitarily corrupt officials who conspire to extort and put in debt the very nations they swear to defend and protect.
“Today’s victory is not for Nigeria alone. It is a victory for our long-exploited continent and for the developing world as a whole, which has for too long been on the receiving end of unjust economic malpractice and overt exploitation.”
The president commended Nigeria’s defence team and the role of the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Attorney-General in the process of defending Nigeria’s interest in this case.
On its part, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) applauded the dismissal of the case.
The commission’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, said “with the Monday judgement, Nigerian assets are safe both at home and abroad.”
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