There was relief for the Nigerian government on Monday following the decision of the Business and Property Court in London to suspend the enforcement of the $11bn arbitration award in favour of P&ID against the country.
In the case marked CL-2019-000752, the judgment delivered by Justice Robert Knowles held that the process through which P&ID secured the contract in 2010 to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, was fraudulent.
According to Knowles, “In the circumstances and for the reasons I have sought to describe and explain. Nigeria succeeds in its challenge under section 68. I have not accepted all of Nigeria’s allegations. But the Awards were obtained by fraud and the Awards were and the way in which they were procured was contrary to public policy.
“What happened in this case is very serious indeed, and it is important that section 68 has been available to maintain the rule of law,” reported Punch, quoting Justice Knowles in his ruling.
Over the years, Nigeria has been embroiled in controversy with Process & Industrial since it accused the company of breaching the agreement by not supplying gas.
When an arbitration court ordered the country to pay the P&ID in 2017, the country owed $6.6 billion, with interest that began accruing in March 2013.
P&ID alleged that Nigeria breached the terms of the contract by failing to supply gas to a power plant it planned to build in the country.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government agreed to pay $850 million out of court and transferred the payment to President Buhari’s government.
Buhari objected to paying the agreed sum, canceled the settlement agreement and challenged the enforcement of the judgment under the UK Commercial Code.
However, the London court added $2.4 billion in interest, bringing the total to $9 billion.
The judge granted Nigeria’s request to halt the seizure of the assets pending legal challenges, but ordered Nigeria to pay $200 million to the court within 60 days to secure the stay.
They must also pay more legal costs to P&ID within 14 days. The original August 16 ruling upheld P&ID’s arbitration award and allowed British Virgin Islands-based P&ID to seize its international assets.
But In 2018, Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), began investigating the company and discovered evidence of two wire transfers totaling $20,000 from Dublin-based Industrial Consultants (International) Ltd. to Grace Taiga, a Nigerian government lawyer who oversaw the execution of the gas plant contract, part of the P&ID Group.
