P&ID: Nigeria To Appeal Against Payment Of $200m Deposit
Nigeria Wednesday instructed its lawyers to appeal against the payment of $200 million US dollars payment which was a condition for the granting of the stay of execution in the $9.6bn award in favour of Process and Industrial Development Limited.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this in Abuja noted that the Federal Government has succeeded in changing the false narrative being peddled by P&ID both within and outside Nigeria by putting across strong evidence that the company is nothing but a fraud adding that Nigeria will be able to demand for a refund of the 250,000 GBP payment to P&ID where the government wins on the appeal.
Lai Mohammed explained that conditions Imposed by the Courts for the Stay of Execution include that the Federal Government pay the sum of 200 million US dollars into the Court Funds Office within 60 days of the date of this order and also make a payment in the sum of 250,000 GBP, representing P&ID’s solicitors advance costs, within a period 14 working days.
He noted that had Nigeria lost its quest for a stay of execution on the UK judgment that recognised the approximately 9.6 billion-dollar arbitration award to P&ID over a botched, 20-year gas deal with Nigeria, P&ID would by now be attempting to seize our assets all over the world.
“It was indeed a huge victory, and P&ID has every reason to be worried that the 9.6 billion US dollars arbitration award to it has a good chance of being overturned,” Mohammed said.
“Remember they boasted, before the judgment, that they have started compiling a list of our assets which they will attach. But now, that’s an empty boast, thanks to the successes recorded in the court of law and the court of public opinion last week.”
The minister said Nigeria has a good chance of being successful in its impending appeal, otherwise, the Commercial Court would not have allowed the appeal. He noted that the delegation had argued that contract of such magnitude cannot be valid until it has been vetted by the Office of the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and taken to the Federal Executive Council for approval.
“None of these was done,” Mohammed said. “The sham contract was also signed in contravention of the Bureau of Public Procurement Act and the Infrastructural Regulatory Commission Procurement Act.”
“While the MoU for the project was signed in 2009 by P&ID Nigeria Limited and the Nigerian government (Ministry of Petroleum Resources), a ‘trick’ clause dubiously inserted in the MoU was curiously activated that allowed British Virgin Island (BVI)-registered P&ID to replace the original contractual party, P&ID Nigeria Limited, to sign the contract on Jan. 11, 2010.
