The House of Representatives has announced plans to investigate Nigerians and other parties linked to the illicit contract that resulted in the $11 billion arbitration award to P&ID by a UK court.
This decision followed the approval of a motion titled ‘Reversal of the $11 billion arbitration award in favor of Nigeria: Call for the investigation of all legal and other service providers involved in the P&ID deal,’ sponsored by Hon. Kama Nkemkanma.
Leading the debate, Hon. Nkemkanma expressed satisfaction with the Business and Property Court’s judgment in London on October 23, 2023, which stopped the enforcement of the $11 billion arbitration award in favor of P&ID against Nigeria in the case.
“The House is aware that in the judgment delivered by Justice Robert Knowles, it was hold that the process through which P&ID secured a 2010 contract to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, was fraudulent.
“While delivering the judgment, Justice Robert Knowles held that – ‘In the circumstances and for the reasons I have sought to describe and explain. Nigeria succeeds in its challenge under section 68, I have not accepted all of Nigeria’s allegations, but the awards were obtained by fraud and the awards were and the way in which they were procured was contrary to public policy.
“What happened in this case is very serious indeed, and it is important that section 68 has been available to maintain the rule of law.
“The House is again aware that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, in 2018, began investigating P&ID and found evidence of two bank transfers totalling $20,000 made by Dublin-based Industrial Consultants (International) Ltd. — part of the P&ID group of companies—to Grace Taiga, a Nigerian government lawyer who oversaw the award of the gas plant contract, thus exposing the level of shoddiness and corruption around the entire process.”
Happy about the court ruling, the House congratulated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the people of Nigeria for their well-deserved victory over P&ID at the Business and Property Court in London. Following the rules in the Constitution, the House assigned the joint Committees on Justice and Financial Crimes to look into the actions of everyone involved in the P&ID deal and report back within four weeks.
The house recalled that Nigeria has been involved in a fight with P&ID since the company accused the Nigerian government of botching a deal by failing to provide gas to them leading to the ugly situation where the country suffered a $6.6 billion judgement debt in 2017 when the arbitration tribunal ordered the country to pay P&ID with interest to start counting from March 2013.
