A court of appeal in the United Kingdom (UK) has dismissed the appeal of Process & Industrial Development (P&ID) on a previous judgment halting the enforcement of its $11 billion award against Nigeria.
Gatekeepers News reports that the presiding judge, Lord Justice Snowden, in a unanimous decision, allowed P&ID to appeal the judgment but dismissed the appeal.
In 2010, P&ID made a deal with Nigerian government, to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River state, but the agreement allegedly collapsed because the latter did not fulfil its end of the bargain.
The Nigerian government, on its end, said that the gas deal was a scam conceived to defraud the country.
P&ID however, denied the allegation and accused Nigerian government of false allegations and wild conspiracy theories.
It then took legal recourse and secured an arbitral award against Nigeria.
A tribunal had on January 31, 2017, ruled that Nigeria should pay P&ID $6.6 billion as damages, as well as pre and post-judgment interest at seven percent, which later amounted to $11 billion.
Subsequently in October 2023, Justice of Commercial Courts of England and Wales, Robin Knowles halted enforcement of the compensation by upholding Nigeria’s claim that it was obtained by fraud and in violation of section 68 of the English Arbitration Act 1996.
The judge found that P&ID paid bribes to Nigerian officials involved in drafting of gas supply and processing agreement (GSPA) in 2010.
He also found that P&ID was illegally in possession of Nigeria’s privileged legal documents during the arbitration hearings.
The judge ruled that the company pay £43 million in compensation to Nigeria as legal fees and disbursements.
Back to the judgment delivered by the UK Court of Appeal on Friday; in a copy of the judgement published on UK judiciary website, one of the issues raised in P&ID appeal bordered on if the lower court was wrong to order the £43 million legal cost to be paid in British pound sterling and not in naira.
P&ID argued that Nigeria funded its legal services by exchanging naira from its consolidated revenue fund.
Part of the court judgment goes, “The second issue (which is only reached if this Court has jurisdiction and grants permission to appeal) is whether the Judge was right to order P&ID to pay Nigeria’s costs in sterling.”
“Although Nigeria was billed by its English lawyers in sterling and paid them in sterling, P&ID contends that Nigeria funded such payments by exchanging naira from its consolidated revenue fund, so that the Costs Order should have been in naira.”
“The issue is of some financial consequence because the naira depreciated significantly against sterling in the period between Nigeria’s payments to its lawyers and the making of the Costs Order.”
“Nigeria’s legal fees and disbursements are said to have amounted to around £43 million. P&ID asserts that payment of such fees and disbursements at the relevant times would have cost Nigeria a total of about 23 billion naira; but if P&ID is required to pay £43 million in costs now, that could be exchanged by Nigeria at the current rate to about 76 billion naira.”
The presiding judge acknowledged the arguments of Nigeria, that since the legal cost was paid in sterling, the cost order should be paid in the same currency.
The judge said, “In my judgment, therefore, the judge was right to accept Nigeria’s straightforward submission that because Nigeria had been invoiced and had incurred its liability to its solicitors in sterling and had paid those bills in sterling, the court ought to make its Costs Order in sterling.”
“I would therefore grant P&ID permission to appeal, but would dismiss the appeal.”
