P&ID: British court grants Nigeria more time to appeal $9.6bn judgment

Adefioye Iyunade

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A British court has granted the Nigerian government more time to appeal against the $9.6bn arbitral award delivered in favour of British Virgin Island, Process, and Industrial Development (P&ID) on Friday.

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Nigeria had applied to the court for an extension of the time to appeal against the award having earlier missed the initial 28 days deadline.

The London arbitration panel had in January 2017 issued the award against Nigeria for a breach of a 2010 gas supply contract it entered into with P&ID.

The arbitral award was confirmed by a British court in a judgment delivered in 2019.

The Federal Government has been battling to have the judgment set aside on the grounds that the contract leading to the arbitral award was fraudulent.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), said on Thursday, that the Federal Government had learnt lessons from the $9.6bn arbitral award delivered by a London arbitration panel against Nigeria and in favour of P&ID.

A statement by Malami’s spokesperson, Dr. Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, quoted the minister as speaking at a virtual international conference to mark the African Arbitration Day.

Malami was quoted as saying that “the whole saga associated with P&ID contract was a product of corruption, fraud, and non-compliance with processes and procedures”.

Nigeria has been making moves to overturn the judgement and has gotten court clearance to request documents from a P&ID stakeholder and review bank statements of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Diezani Alison-Madueke and Rilwanu Lukman, former ministers of petroleum.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on August 18, arraigned James Nolan, a Briton, and six companies over their alleged involvement in the contract.