Nigeria’s quest to overturn $11 billion P&ID debt begins, trial to last eight weeks

Recall that in 2019, a British court gave P&ID the go-ahead to seize Nigerian assets worth $9 billion over a 2010 contract.

The company claimed it entered into an agreement with Nigeria to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River state; but that the deal collapsed because the Nigerian government did not fulfil its end of the bargain.

The award, which has been accruing interest since 2013, is now worth $11 billion.

At the proceedings in London’s high court on Monday, Mark Howard, Nigeria’s lawyer, told the court that P&ID obtained its contract “by telling repeated lies and paying bribes to officials.”

As a result, the lawyer also argued that P&ID “corrupted” Nigeria’s attorneys to obtain secret information during the arbitration.

In his written submissions, Howard added that the company paid bribes and relied on false evidence “to dupe (Nigeria), the tribunal, and this court into giving P&ID an extraordinary amount of money on the back of a campaign of bribery, corruption and deception.”

P&ID has, however, maintained innocence.

In court records, P&ID attorney, David Wolfson,  claimed that Nigeria’s arbitration defeat “had nothing to do with any corruption.”

The trial, which started Monday, is expected to last for eight weeks.