Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) has secured two separate court judgements from English courts against Nigeria, a development that seems to plunge the Federal Government deeper into the issue it was trying to wriggle out of.
But government said yesterday that the engineering and project management company led by Michael Quinn and the court accepted its bank guarantee of $200 million as security, in compliance with a court order.
On the court rulings, the firm stated: “These two developments are major milestones for P&ID, as it attempts to compel Nigeria to comply with its lawful obligations.
“The Court of Appeal has dismissed Nigeria’s application for additional permission to appeal in strident terms, with Lord Justice Flaux stating that Nigeria’s arguments were without merit and had no realistic prospect of success.”
It added that the commercial court rejected the attempts by the Muhammadu Buhari administration to avoid the payment of $200 million in security, which was demanded by the court as a condition of a stay of execution.
But it confirmed Nigeria’s provision of the bank guarantee.
“Nigeria has provided a bank guarantee for $200 million, which will be released to P&ID if and when Nigeria’s appeal fails.
“P&ID expresses hope that the Buhari administration will now accept the reality of the Arbitration Tribunal Award and the decisions of the English Court,” it stated.
The bank guarantee was provided on Wednesday.
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AFG) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, stated yesterday that the deadline for the provision of the security was extended by the court to November 28.
According to him, any suggestion that any part of the $200 million payment has been or will be made into the court or to P&ID is entirely false.
The Federal government had stated last week that no payment to P&ID could be made, as they were under active investigation for fraud and corruption.
But the court maintained that its deadlines must be complied with, which forced government to propose a bank guarantee as a variation to the previous order.
The court approved this yesterday.
The minister asserted that provision of the security was a positive step forward for the country to overturn the injustice of the $9.6 billion award, which it tagged a direct result of corruption.
“Over the last few weeks, investigations have revealed a very serious fraud, bringing into question both the legitimacy of the GSPA (gas supply and processing agreement) and the subsequent award itself.
“As a result of these investigations, the federation has recently expanded its legal team, which will now enable us to launch in full our challenge against the fraudulently procured agreement and award,” he added.
THE GUARDIAN