Corruption Legal Nigeria Top Story

Nigeria’s $11 bln London P&ID trial will expose corruption, court told

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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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