By Stephen Ubnna
Between August 2012 and 2023, the Nigerian government and process and Industrial Developments, P &ID, a foreign gas supply company,, have been shuttling a United Kingdom International Arbitration Court ove $11.4 billion payment for a failed 20-year contract.
The British Offshore Company had in January 2010, during the Administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan signed a gas supply Processing Agreement , SPA, with the Nigerian government to develop . a processing plant in Calabar, capital of Cross river state. Going by the Agreement, the Nigerian government would provide the gas to P&ID, for free for over 20 years.
The two parties were said to have agreed to split the processed resource, with the Nigerian government using its share to help finance the country’s power grid but the project never got off the ground. This is because P&ID, never built the gas processing plant in Calabar as promised and the Nigerian government never kept its part of the bargain of providing the company with free gas.
IT was obvious that that the multi-billion-dollar contract was heading for a collapse and It finally failed in 2012.
Until the signing of the signing of the $11.4 billion contract, by the two parties in 2010, one Grace Taiga , a ministry of Petroleum Resources former Head Lawyer , believed to be among the three Nigerians with hopes to share in the record-breaking $11.4 billion contract awarded in favour to the little known offshore company by a British Court . The other two Nigerians who were expected to benefit from the deal were Adetunji Adebayo and Mohammed Kuchazi, both businessmen.
Asource told The Value that that the amount to be given to the three Nigerians has been built into the $11.4 billion with interest. Given that the contract had failed, may have informed why the Company had dragged the Nigerian government to a London Court of International Arbitration and sought for a $5. 96 billion compensations from the country.
The Company may have had a breather when in 2017, during the Administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Court ruled against the Nigerian government for breaching the contract and ordered the country to pay $6.6 billion with interest starting from 2013. Recall that prior to the Court verdict, the interest on the contract sum had been fixed at seven percent daily and had accumulated to over$11 billion.
The then Katsina state born Nigeria n President had refused to pay the money to the British offshore company and opted’’ to appeal against the enforcement of the award’’. The then Nigerian President had vowed in 2019, to confront the British firm which he had said was attempting to defraud Nigeria billions of dollars of its oil revenue. In September, 2020, and the Court granted the relief sought by the country to appeal against the award.
The Nigerian government may have stood its ground not to pay the money awarded to the P&ID, by the British Court as it has argued that ‘’there was enough evidence to show that the contract and the arbitration award were procured by fraud’’. The government had said that the individuals who have been precancelled down by the company to share from the deal were being tried by the country’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for alleged money laundering and graft.
Indeed, the Commercial Courts of England had ruled that that The $11.4 billion awarded against Nigeria by the P&ID, was ‘’obtained by fraud’’, confirming the Nigerian government position on the matter.
The trial Judge, Justice Robin Knowles, was emphatic in his remarks that ‘’the awards were obtained by P&&ID, by fraud in Court. He did not stop there. He had stated further that award were and by the way in which they were procured, ‘’it was contrary to public policy’’. The Lawyer may not have accepted t all the allegations of the Nigerian government against the British offshore company and their Nigerian Collaborators.
The Trial British Judge may have given officials of P&ID, a cause to worry when he set aside the award of the arbitration Court in whole or in part and further declared that ’’the award is of no effect in whole or part’’. It was bad news, for the three Nigerians who were to share from the fraudulent deal with P&ID.
An elated Tinubu, had said that that the British Commercial Court Judgment proves that ‘’no nation states will be held hostage any longer by economic conspiracies between private firms and solitary corrupt officials who had conspired to extort and indebted the very nation they have sworn to defend and protect’’.
The Nigerian President had said that ‘’the country for too long had been at the receiving end of unjust economic malpractice and covert exploitation’’ and would no longer give in to such.’
He had gave kudos to officials of the Federal ministry of Justice Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Lateef Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, and for their tremendous efforts in following up the case to its logical conclusion. Fagbemi, the AGF, had said that that the victory secured by the Nigerian government in the P&ID, litigation should serve as a pointer’’ to others who might be nursing or nurturing any plan to swindle the government that they would never succeed in their plan’’.
According to him, ‘’the victory has brought to an end the legal battle between the two parties which had been on since 2012, until the Nigerian government was awarded to pay $6.6 billion to the Company in 2017, with the interest of seven percent starting from May , 2013.
The minister had said that ‘’the judgment would also serve as a damning indictment of predatory international investors who should now rightfully be deterred from prying upon Nigeria and other developing nations to justify their greed’’.
Armed by the British Commercial Court ruling, the AGF, had made it clear that P&ID, and its Nigerian Associates and foreign collaborators had shamelessly attempted ‘’ to defraud the country and enrich themselves through sharing the Nigerian documents, fraud, bribery and Corruption on industrial scale’’.
Those who thinks that Nigerian government and the P&ID, case is over may have to do a rethink. The Nigerian minister of Justice had told those that cares to listen that the case just started as there would be further hearings by the UK Court ‘’ to determine costs payable by P&ID, and other matters’’.
While the Nigerian government are celebrating the victory over P&ID, an offshore British Company, in a London Commercial Court, the former Lagos state governor appears to have bowed to pressure from the Leadership of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF, including Multilateral Financial Institutions, London Club and Paris Club, to borrow to finance the country’’s economy.
This is evident as the Federal Executive Council, FEC, has approved a $3.45 billion, zero-interest World Bank loan application for the financing of five undisclosed items. Wale Edun, minister of Finance and Coordinating minister of the Economy, had said that the loan request is payable within 40 years with a 10-year moratorium, meaning that the loan repayment would start from 2033.
This may have informed why the minister had said that the country is expecting a foreign exchange flow of $10 billion in the coming weeks . He had said that in addition to the supply of Forex through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corportation, NNPC, now baptised, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited, NPCL, with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, by the National Assembly and signed into Law by former President Buhari, in August , 2021, , increased production of crude oil, reduced expenditure, from transactions such as forward sales, based on the government discussions with the Sovereign Wealth Funds that are ready to invest, and provide advanced alongside that investment , noting that ‘’there is a line of sight of $10 billion worth of forex in the relatively near future or in weeks to come.
