With the Nigerian government winning a landmark case at a London Business Court on Monday against the Process & Industrial Development (P&ID) Limited firm, of note is the judge ruling that the arbitration award for a failed gas deal was won fraudulently
Nigeria will now be free from paying as much as $11 billion to the British Virgin Island company after coming top of the case
Judge Robin Knowles in his judgement did not fail to take a swipe at the Nigerian government officials in the deal as he said that the massive arbitration award was tainted by bribes.
“The awards were obtained by fraud.
“The way in which the awards were procured was contrary to public policy.”
With Nigeria being able to establish a strong prima facie case that the 2010 gas project agreement between the government and P&ID “was procured by bribes paid to insiders as part of a larger scheme to defraud Nigeria”, the London court also lamented the greediness of some Nigerian officials that would have cost the country $11 billion in damages.
After establishing some Nigerian officials collected bribes in the deal Judge Knowles said:
“This case has, sadly, brought together a combination of examples of what some individuals will do for money”.
In his ruling, he posited that the Nigerian officials were “driven by greed and prepared to use corruption; giving no thought to what their enrichment would mean in terms of harm for others.”
Judge Robin Knowles averred that the people of Nigeria have been let down in “so many ways over the history of this matter by a number of individuals in politics and administration whose duty it was to serve them and protect them.”
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