BREAKING: NIGERIA WINS APPEAL AGAINST P&ID OVER FAILED 2010 DEAL

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Nigeria has won its appeal against Process and Industrial Development P&ID over a failed 2010 deal to develop a gas processing plant over which it was inflicted a $9BN judgement which has now risen to $10BN.

P&ID had claimed Nigeria violated terms of its agreement by failing to provide gas for the power plant it wants to build for the Country.

This hindered the development of the Gas Project, which was approved under the administration of former President Umaru Yar’Adua, and prevented P&ID from realising the possible earnings of $5 to $6 billion that were projected from 20 years’ worth of gas supply.

The arbitral panel determined unanimously in 2017 that P&ID was entitled to $6.6 billion because the Federal Government had repudiated the GSPA by neglecting to fulfil its responsibilities under it. The total amount of the penalties and interest is currently $11.5 billion.

A UK judge has however, dismissed the $6.6billion arbitrary judgment against Nigeria of which interests have ballooned to $11.5 billion, won by briefcase company Process & Industry Development (P&ID) Ltd, over a failed 2010 deal to develop a gas processing plant.

Judge Robin Knowles of the Business and Property Court in London, who presided over a remote and secretive court, declared that the case’s outcomes were against public policy and that the award was gained by deception.

Nigeria and Process & Industrial Developments were involved in a legal dispute in 2010 regarding an unsuccessful agreement to build a gas processing plant. Nigeria was awarded a $9 billion judgement, which has since been increased to $10 billion.

The administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan came to an out-of-tribunal deal to pay $850 million, which was then transferred to President Buhari’s administration.

Buhari objected to the idea of having to pay the agreed-upon amount, revoked the settlement, and filed a lawsuit with the English Commercial Court to have the award enforced. But the London court increased the total to $9 billion by $2.4 billion in interest.

Nigeria’s plea for a delay on asset seizures while its legal appeal is pending was granted by the judge; nonetheless, Nigeria was mandated to pay $200 million to the court within 60 days in order to guarantee the stay. Within 14 days, it must also reimburse P&ID for certain court expenses.

The initial ruling on August 16 transformed a P&ID-held arbitration verdict into a court order, enabling the company based in the British Virgin Islands to attempt to take control of foreign assets.

Following that, Nigeria started looking into the business through the EFCC and discovered evidence of two bank transfers totaling $20,000 made to Grace Taiga, a Nigerian government attorney who oversaw the awarding of the gas plant contract, by Dublin-based Industrial Consultants (International) Ltd., a member of the P&ID group of companies.

The payments were allegedly paid for “medical costs” in 2017 and 2018, according to senior prosecutor Bala Sanga, and came from an Allied Irish Banks account for Industrial Consultants.

Based on this new evidence, it called ‘seismic’ Nigeria filed fraud challenges against P&1D but the company has 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,” says 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 have 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.

“The award in question, which amounts to over eight times Nigeria’s national health budget, could be used for far more important, and genuine, public issues at the current time.

“Nigeria simply cannot afford to have our future threatened by a sham company that is not even capable of answering to the concrete evidence of fraud levelled against them.”

Nigeria is unable to pay the judgement debt due to a depleted surplus crude account and low revenues from even lower crude oil prices.

If Nigeria lost the appeal, its foreign assets, oil cargoes, and P&ID were to be seized.