President Bola Tinubu and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside many other Nigerians yesterday applauded the judgment of a London court on the botched 2010 gas processing plant contract awarded to a firm, Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID).
President Tinubu said the “victory is not for Nigeria alone,” the EFCC maintained that P&ID has not been able to show that it legitimately, and lawfully secured the deal.
P&ID was awarded the 20-year contract by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in 2010 to construct and operate a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, as part of a wider plan to exploit the country’s abundant gas reserves.
After the deal collapsed, P&ID took Nigeria to arbitration in London and on January 31, 2017, was awarded $6.6 billion for lost profits – a sum which swelled with interest to about $11.5 billion before yesterday’s verdict by Judge Robin Knowles of Business and Property Court.
Following the 2017 judgment in favour of P&ID, Nigeria applied for an extension of time and relief from sanctions. The application was granted by Judge Ross Cranston of the same court in September 2020, thereby returning the case to arbitration.
Nigeria had alleged that the gas deal was a scam, telling the court that P&ID officials paid bribes to secure the contract, but P&ID accused Nigeria of “false allegations and wild conspiracy theories.”
President Tinubu described yesterday’s judgment by Knowles as landmark, hailing the UK Court for prioritising the merits of the case above all other considerations.
The President added in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, that the verdict conclusively showed that Nigeria would “no longer be held hostage by economic conspiracies between private firms and solitarily corrupt officials who conspire to extort and indebt the very nations they swear to defend and protect.”
The immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had acted wisely by declining an initial out-of-tribunal agreement for the payment of $850 million to the British firm.
Vowing to continue with the trial of those suspected of involvement in the botched deal, the EFCC said it was pleased with the judgment by Knowles because Nigeria’s international assets and oil cargoes would have been taken over by P&ID if the country had lost the case.
The anti-graft agency added in a statement by its spokesman, Dele Oyewale, that the verdict was a welcome relief going by the fact that “Nigeria does not even have the capacity to pay the judgment debt.”
