Court grants Nigeria relief
Presidency welcomes verdict
AUnited Kingdom court in London has granted Nigeria leave to challenge the award of $9.6 billion in favour of Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) Ltd.
A statement by Dr Umar Gwandu, the media aide to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), yesterday said the application was allowed outside the time limit due to the exceptional circumstances in which Nigerian government showed it had uncovered massive fraud in procuring the award.
The court considered evidence from Nigeria and the offshore firm, P&ID, in the 2010 Gas Supply and Processing
Agreement (GSPA) from Calabar, Cross River State, which was later terminated before commencement. But the company said it had already incurred expenses in laying off facilities to the tune of $40m.
The AGF said the Muhammadu Buhari administration which inherited the dispute, only recently uncovered evidence that the GSPA was a sham commercial deal designed to fail from the start, and that its subsequent arbitral award was based on fraud and corruption.”
“The FRN relied on a number of ongoing investigations across multiple jurisdictions, including the US, to build its case. During the hearing, new evidence was presented to further support Nigeria’s challenge,” Malami said in the statement.
Continuing, he said: “the FRN will now proceed to a full trial of the issues, where the FRN’s substantive application to finally set aside the award will be heard, thereby recording a major success considering the fact that the federal government exceptional circumstances application to have its challenge taken well outside the normal time limits is upheld on account of uncovered evidence of massive fraud in procuring the award.
“The Federal Republic of Nigeria is pleased with the outcome from the High Court hearing today. This is a major victory in our ongoing fight against the vulture-fund-backed P&ID, to overturn the injustice of the multibillion dollar arbitral award.
“In light of the new and substantive evidence presented regarding P&ID’s fraudulent and corrupt activities, the Court has granted our application for an extension of time to hear our challenge out of normal time limits.”
…Presidency welcomes verdict
The Presidency has welcomed the judgment. Presidential aide, Garba Shehu, in a statement said the judgment was “right and just”.
The statement said the verdict provided a strong prima facie case that the fraudulent gas deal with P&ID and the subsequent judgment debt of $10 billion against Nigeria was a clear attempt to cheat the country of billions of dollars by a company that had not invested one Naira in our country.
The presidency, while reacting to the arbitration award, said it was a source of huge satisfaction that the court, among others, had ruled that Nigeria had established a strong prima facie case.
“There is also a strong prima facie case that that (P&ID) main witness in the arbitration, Mr Quinn, gave perjured evidence to the tribunal, and that contrary to that evidence, P&ID was not in the position to perform the contract,” he said.
The presidency, which also expressed delight with the processes that led to the outcome in the English court, noted that it had given relief to the Nigerian government to further protect its national assets from criminally minded organisations and individuals.