A London Commercial Court presided over by Mr. Justice Robin Knowles has ordered Process & Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) to pay £20million Interim Cost to Nigeria in respect of the ongoing case of alleged breach of a 2010 gas supply contract.
The Honourable Attorney General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, and the Federal Government of Nigeria P&ID Team Coordinator/Director Legal Services, Central Bank of Nigeria, Kofo Salam-Alada, on Friday, witnessed the victorious court session.
As a result of the court ruling, key issues have now been resolved in favour of Nigeria, reports Sunday Independent.
Seamus Andrew, who was indicted and his conduct referred to the Regulatory Council, applied to be granted permission to appeal against that part of the judgment but the courts said his application was not properly made before it.
P&ID wanted the case remitted back to Arbitration instead of being set aside but the court disagreed and has now set aside the award of $11billion.
Nigeria lawyer Mark Howard KC had argued that two of the Arbitrators were old and retired.
In addition, Lord Hoffman, one of them, had recently made comments that could be termed prejudicial if the case were to be remitted to the Arbitration Tribunal
Furthermore, in respect of the Indemnity Costs to be awarded against P&ID, the Judge refused cost on an Indemnity basis that would have seen Nigeria get near 100% of the cost incurred on the case but held that costs would be on Standard basis which however would be impacted/determined by conduct of party paying, P&ID (which has been found to be reprehensible) as well as the value and complexity of the case.
The implication of this is that Nigeria stands to recover a substantial part of its costs
Also, P&ID made desperate efforts to pay in Naira and at 1% whereas Nigeria wanted payment in pound sterling, the currency of legal fees and costs incurred and at Bank of England interest rate (2.5%).
Concerning the above, the Court decided that Nigeria was entitled to cost in pound Sterling and ordered P&ID to pay an interim cost in the sum of £20million within 28 days.
The court also heard arguments on P&ID application for leave to appeal but reserved judgement till next week on this.
In October, Nigeria was able to stop the enforcement of the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of P&ID against the country.
This was after the same Justice Knowles of the Commercial Court of England and Wales upheld Nigeria’s prayer that the ill-fated gas processing contract was obtained by fraud.
