P&ID Gets Two Court Rulings Against Nigeria As Firm, Court Accept FG’s $200m Bank Guarantee

Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) has
secured two separate court judgements from English courts against
Nigeria, a development that seems to plunge the Federal Government
deeper into the issue it was trying to wriggle out of, according to guardian
report. ^[1]

But the government said yesterday that the engineering and
project management company led by Michael Quinn and the court
accepted its bank guarantee of $200 million as security, in
compliance with a court order.

On the court rulings, the firm stated: “These two developments
are major milestones for P&ID, as it attempts to compel Nigeria
to comply with its lawful obligations.

“The Court of Appeal has dismissed Nigeria’s application for
additional permission to appeal in strident terms, with Lord
Justice Flaux stating that Nigeria’s arguments were without merit
and had no realistic prospect of success.”

It added that the commercial court rejected the attempts by the
Muhammadu Buhari administration to avoid the payment of $200
million in security, which was demanded by the court as a condition
of a stay of execution.

But it confirmed Nigeria’s provision of the bank guarantee.

“Nigeria has provided a bank guarantee for $200 million, which
will be released to P&ID if and when Nigeria’s appeal
fails.

“P&ID expresses hope that the Buhari administration will now
accept the reality of the Arbitration Tribunal Award and the
decisions of the English Court,” it stated.

The bank guarantee was provided on Wednesday.

The Attorney-General of the Federation (AFG) and Minister of
Justice, Abubakar Malami, stated yesterday that the deadline for
the provision of the security was extended by the court to November
28.

According to him, any suggestion that any part of the $200
million payment has been or will be made into the court or to
P&ID is entirely false.

The Federal government had stated last week that no payment to
P&ID could be made, as they were under active investigation for
fraud and corruption.

But the court maintained that its deadlines must be complied
with, which forced government to propose a bank guarantee as a
variation to the previous order.

The court approved this yesterday.

The minister asserted that provision of the security was a
positive step forward for the country to overturn the injustice of
the $9.6 billion award, which it tagged a direct result of
corruption.

“Over the last few weeks, investigations have revealed a very
serious fraud, bringing into question both the legitimacy of the
GSPA (gas supply and processing agreement) and the subsequent award
itself.

“As a result of these investigations, the federation has
recently expanded its legal team, which will now enable us to
launch in full our challenge against the fraudulently procured
agreement and award,” he added.