By Uche Mbah
After several false steps that resulted in a British Court slamming a whopping $200 million for stay on asset seizure that could have resulted in $9 billion worth of national assets being seized, Nigeria finally files an appeal.
Recall that a British Court had declared that Nigeria pay $200 million as fine for stay on execution of the asset seizure case which involved a deal with Process and industrial Development, P&ID gone sour.
P&ID, under a 2010 contract, won a $6.6 billion arbitration award after the deal crumbled. The award has been accruing interest since 2013 and is now worth more than $9 billion, according to Reuters.
It was a private firm set up to carry out a gas project with Nigeria then.
The President Goodluck Jonathan Administration had started the Arbitration process with the firm, but the Buhari government abandoned the negotiations and got a ruling behind their back awarding $6.6 billion in assets against Nigeria. A court in London granted stay on execution to the tune of $200 million, which the Nigerian government is now challenging.
The company belonged to two Irish nationals said to be portfolio investors with no experience in Oil and Gas.
Attorney General Abubakar Malami had said they have filed an appeal, though he did not say when the Appeal was filed. Neither did he say anything about the response of the Court.
Industry watchers have agreed that it was sheer negligence for the government not to have followed up on the arbitration which, this Magazine learnt, was part of the hand over note from President Jonathan. Opposition has claimed that Buhari abandoned the arbitration in order to blame his predecessor for the mess, but “it has come back to haunt him”, an analyst said yesterday.
For the appellate Court to set aside the ruling of the lower Court, it must be proven that there is an error in the ruling.
Meanwhile, Justice Okon Abang of Abuja High Court has refused to grant adjournment to a related case involving the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and a Briton, James Nolan. Nolan had sought adjournment to the case, an application the Court refused.
Last October, the EFCC arraigned Nolan and Adam Quinn (currently at large), over their alleged complicity in the 9.6 billion dollars judgment against Nigeria, several weeks after two P&ID directors were convicted over the deal.
Nolan and Quin are both British Nationals.
