A London Commercial Court, on Friday, issued a timetable for the hearing of various legal actions instituted by the Federal Government to have the $9.6bn judgment delivered in favour of a British Virgin Island firm, Process and Industrial Development, set aside.
The spokesperson for the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), Dr. Umar Gwandu, disclosed this in a statement.
The PUNCH had reported that the proceedings of the court over the $9.6bn judgment would hold on Friday.
Gwandu stated that the Federal Republic of Nigeria, through its lawyers, appeared in the English High Court for a scheduled case management conference on Friday.
According to Gwandu, with the timetable set by the court on Friday, “P&ID has 28 days to respond to the application for the extension of the time to challenge the arbitral award.”
He said the court would thereafter set a date for the hearing of the application.
He added, “The CMC was held for the court to decide procedural issues relating to our application to set aside the arbitral award on the basis that it was procured by fraud and corruption.
“A timetable has now been fixed for a hearing to decide if our application can be brought outside the normal time limits.”
The statement added, “This is another positive milestone in the Federation’s fight to overturn this award.
“Based on new and credible evidence discovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.”
He noted that “it is increasingly clear that ‘P&ID ‘contract’ was a highly orchestrated scam, involving a cover-up by ministers at the highest levels of office in the previous administration”.
He said the issues would be tabled before the court for consideration of the federation’s challenge to the award.
“It is telling that to date P&ID have said nothing to rebut these allegations of fraud,” Gwandu stated.
The London Commercial Court had in a judgment delivered on August 16, 2019 validated a London arbitration panel’s award of the sum of $9.6bn against Nigeria and in favour of P&ID.
The Federal Government had since instituted a series of legal actions to have the judgment overturned.
The government had through its legal actions obtained a conditional stay of execution of the judgment and the court’s permission to appeal against the judgment.
The $9.6bn award was first issued against Nigeria and in favour of P&ID in a January 31, 2017 ruling of a London arbitration tribunal, which held the Federal Government liable for the breach of a 20-year gas supply agreement signed in 2010 between P&ID and Nigeria, through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
