Shehu Sani, former Kaduna Central Senator, the Process & Industry Development (P&ID) Limited judgement is a big lesson to the Nigerian Government.
In the future, Sani said the Nigerian Government would exercise caution in signing deals with dubious foreign investors.
Posting on X, Sani wrote: “It’s a big relief for Nigeria to Win the P&ID case in London that would have led to the loss of $ 11 billion to a fraudulent deal. This should be a great lesson for the Government on the need to exercise caution in signing deals with dubious foreign investors. Kudos to the legal team.”
Nigeria had won its case against the Process and Industrial Developments Company, P&ID.
The victory comes after five years of legal fireworks, as Nigeria has finally stopped enforcing the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of P&ID.
In the case marked CL-2019-000752, the Federal Government sought to overturn an arbitration award in favour of P&ID, which has now accrued interest worth $11 billion.
The company had claimed it agreed with Nigeria to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, but the deal collapsed because the Nigerian Government needed to fulfil its end of the bargain.
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.
However, Nigeria asked a London High Court to deliver judgment in its favour in a case against Process and Industrial Developments Company, P&ID.
Nigeria’s lawyer, Mark Howard, told the court that P&ID obtained its contract “by telling repeated lies and paying bribes to officials.”
In a judgment delivered via email, Robin Knowles, justice of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales, upheld Nigeria’s prayer that the ill-fated gas processing contract was obtained by fraud.