A British attorney for Nigeria in a lawsuit in London’s courts where $11 billion is at risk predicted on Friday that the trial will expose “on an industrial scale” corruption among British attorneys as well as Nigerian authorities.
The dispute is related to a contract for a gas project that Nigeria gave to Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) in 2010. There are conflicting theories as to why the gas processing plant never materialised.
A London-based arbitration panel declared in 2017 that Nigeria had broken its end of the bargain and was obligated to pay P&ID $6.6 billion in damages after years of legal battle. The prize is currently worth $11 billion after interest.
Nearly 30% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves, which totaled $37 billion at the end of November, are represented by that amount.
Nigeria has filed a lawsuit in London, claiming that P&ID used bribes to win the initial contract and that they manipulated the arbitration process to extract a sizable quantity of money from the Nigerian government.
P&ID disputes this and asserts that Nigeria is attempting to avoid making good on its debts.
At the High Court in London, an eight-week trial is scheduled to begin in January. In addition to in-person appearances, witnesses from Ireland and Nigeria will also testify virtually.
Nigeria’s attorney Mark Howard said the court during a pre-trial hearing on Friday that “widespread corruption and bribery on an industrial scale” will be supported by evidence.
“Our case is it was bribery to get the contract, ongoing bribery to keep everyone on board, bribery of lawyers,” he said, alleging that two London-based British lawyers previously involved in the case had committed “serious misconduct”.
Two Irish citizens founded P&ID at the beginning. Since then, two Cayman Islands-based corporations have acquired ownership of the business.
The matter gained attention from the Nigerian government when President Muhammadu Buhari called it a hoax meant to defraud Nigeria of billions of dollars in a speech to the UN in 2019.
At the time the contract was given, Buhari was not in government.
The People’s Democratic Party, which was in power at the time, is still a significant player in Nigerian politics and will run candidates for the presidency and other elective positions in elections in February, which will take place concurrently with the London trial.
