By Adedapo Adesanya
Almost two months after Nigeria’s victory in an $11 billion suit, the Commercial Courts of England in the United Kingdom has ordered Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited to pay £20 million in damages and compensation.
The court ordered that the money be given to Nigeria within the next 28 days.
The award of £20 million in damages was revealed during a subsequent ruling on the subject in London to determine what happened after the October ruling.
The hearing was also held to determine whether P&ID would be granted permission to appeal the decision, however, the court denied P&ID’s request to remand the case to arbitration.
It contended that the company’s conduct during the process was heinous, thus the judgment.
Nigeria had sued P&ID for at least £20 million in damages and legal fees but obtained significant relief in October when the UK court released it from entanglement in the $11 billion judgment debt previously issued in favour of P&ID Limited.
In the lawsuit between the Federal Government of Nigeria and P&ID, Justice Robin Knowles of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales affirmed Nigeria’s claim that the gas processing contract was obtained by fraud.
P&ID was contracted by Nigeria in 2010 to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, in the country’s south but the deal fell through because the Nigerian government did not keep its half of the bargain.
Claiming Nigeria breached the terms of the contract, P&ID took a legal recourse and secured an arbitral award against the country.
On January 31, 2017, a tribunal ruled that Nigeria should pay P&ID $6.6 billion as damages, as well as pre-and post-judgment interest at seven per cent ($1 million per day)
Following the judgment, Nigeria applied for an extension of time and relief from sanctions, and over the years, the penalty amounted to $11 billion.
Modupe Gbadeyanka