The federal government has filed
a fraud charge against Process & Industrial Development, a gas processing
company, in a British court.
This is Nigeria’s defence against
a $9.7 billion judgement awarded against it for a failed gas project in 2010.
The filing comes after a UK court
granted Nigeria a stay of execution on the arbitral award with the condition
that a $200 million bond be deposited in the next 60 days.
A spokesman for Abubakar Malami,
the attorney general, said the government filed “new and substantive”
allegations of fraud against the British Virgin Island-based gas company
“The challenge argues that the
(contract) was procured on the basis of fraud and corruption, while the
subsequent arbitral process was riddled with irregularities and deliberately
concealed from the rest of the government,” Malami’s spokesman told Reuters.
According to the spokesman,
details of the evidence filed cannot be accessible until the court filing
documents are referred to in open court.
“Nigeria’s new filings with the
English Court is an act of desperation to try to undo the Court’s sound
conclusion that P&ID’s $10 billion award is enforceable,” P&ID said,
adding that the award is now worth $10 billion due to interest accrued.
In November, Malami had said the
government had discovered fraud in the contract award process, which made the
contract itself questionable.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
P&ID reportedly entered a gas
supply and processing agreement with Nigeria in 2010. The company claimed
Nigeria breached the terms of the contract.
It then took a legal recourse,
securing an arbitral award against the country, which has accumulated to $9.6
billion.
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