A UK judge on Thursday gave the Federal Government permission to seek to overturn a ruling that would have allowed Process and Industrial Development Ltdan Irish-founded company to seek to seize more than $9 billion (€8.2 billion) in assets.
According to Reuters/Bloomberg the judge also granted Nigeria’s request for a stay on any asset seizures while its legal challenge is pending, but ordered it to pay $200 million to the court within 60 days to ensure the stay.
The original decision on August 16th converted an arbitration award held by firm Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) to a legal judgment, which would allow the British Virgin Islands-based firm to try to seize international assets.
P&ID was founded by Irish investors Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill. The dispute with Nigeria relates to a failed 2010 deal to develop a gas-processing plant. Nigeria now alleges the contract was won corruptly and the project was never meant to succeed. P&ID denies any wrongdoing. –
Mr Atiku Samuel, a policy analyst last week had urged the Federal Government to negotiate with Process and Industrial Development Ltd. (P&ID) before taking any other legal action.
He said this on Sunday in Abuja.
Samuel said that getting a workable negotiation was the only practicable thing to do to get the nation out of losing such huge amount.
“If Nigeria decides to even appeal the judgement, on what basis will the appeal be grounded,” he asked.
A UK court had in a ruling authorised P&ID, an Irish engineering and project management company to seize 9.6 billion dollars in Nigerian assets over a failed oil and gas contract.
The judgment was a fallout of the contract purportedly entered into in 2010 between the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and P&ID, and subsequent award made in July 2015 by an arbitration panel sitting in London in favour of the company.
Samuel said the nation was in such quagmire because of the failure of the justice system.
According to him, the justice system in Nigeria is not trusted, so most people prefer to get into contract with the government of Nigeria under foreign law.
He, however, said that the ability of the nation to make and enforce contracts and resolve disputes was fundamental if markets and the economy were to function properly.
The policy analyst said that good enforcement procedures enhance predictability in commercial relationships and reduce uncertainty.
This, he said, would assure investors, especially intending Foreign Direct Investors, that their contractual rights would be upheld promptly by local courts.
The Federal Government has alleged that the awarded 9.6 billion dollars judgment debt against Nigeria was a calculated attempt by international and local scammers to deplete the country’s rising foreign reserves.
Massive protest has rocked the United Kingdom High Commission Office in Abuja following $9.6 billion judgment granted to Process and Industrial Development Ltd against Nigeria by a UK court.
The fund is to be withdrawn from Nigeria’s foreign reserves.
The protest was led by a Coalition of Civil Society Groups.
According to the protesters with various placards, they would continue the protest for the next one week until the judgement is reversed.
The inscriptions on some of the placards read: “$9.6bn judgement is a fraud,” “No to illegal take over of our national assets,” “Nigeria rejects fraudulent judgment from British judge,” “Nigeria and Britain are friends, not enemies” and “Boris Johnson help President Muhammadu Buhari fight corruption.”
There are also captions such as “Both Local and International conspirators behind the P&ID fraud must be punished,” “We say no to second slavery, this judgment cannot stand,” among others.
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