Justice Robin Knowles of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales has ruled in favour of Nigeria and quashed the enforcement of the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Ltd.
The judge, in a ruling delivered by email on Monday, upheld Nigeria’s prayer on the ground that the ill-fated gas processing contract was obtained by fraud.
Recall that P&ID had entered into an agreement with Nigeria in 2010 to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River state, but the company said the deal collapsed because the Nigerian government did not fulfil its end of the bargain.
Claiming Nigeria breached the terms of the contract, P&ID took a legal recourse and secured an arbitral award against the country.
However, a private arbitration tribunal had on January 31, 2017, ordered Nigeria to pay $6.6 billion to P&ID plus interest beginning from March 20, 2013.
Following the judgement, Nigeria applied for an extension of time and relief from…