BREAKING: Massive Victory For Nigeria, As UK Court Dismisses P&ID’s $11 Billion Suit
After over five years of legal fireworks, Nigeria has finally succeeded in halting the enforcement of the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of P&ID.
In a judgment delivered by email, Robin Knowles, justice of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales, upheld Nigeria’s prayer on the ground that the ill-fated gas processing contract was obtained by fraud.
P&ID had dragged Nigeria to the court claiming it entered into an agreement with the country to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, but the deal collapsed because the Nigerian government did not fulfil its end of the bargain.
In the ruling, the court squashed the $11 billion arbitration award previously given in favour of P&ID and halted the enforcement of the award by upholding Nigeria’s prayer.
A private arbitration tribunal had on January 31, 2017, ordered Nigeria to pay the sum of $6.6 billion to P&ID plus interest dating back to March 20, 2013, with a fixed interest rate at seven percent, amounting to $1 million per day, which brought the potential payment to an accumulated $11 billion before the verdict.
Nigeria had based its argument on the grounds that P&ID had obtained the said contract fraudulently, further accusing the company of bribery and corruption on an ‘industrial scale,’ alleging that key associates of P&ID suppressed evidence of corruption in the initial arbitral proceedings.
