The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the conduct of all legal and other services providers involved in the $11 billion P&ID deal.
The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion moved at the plenary on Wednesday by Hon. Kama Nkemkanma.
Moving the motion, the lawmaker said he was gladdened by the judgment of the Business and Property Court in London on Monday, 23rd October, 2023 which halted the enforcement of the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of P&ID against Nigeria.
Nkemkanma said in the judgment delivered by Justice Robert Knowles, it was held that the process through which P&ID secured a 2010 contract to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State, was fraudulent.
He said while delivering the judgment, Justice Knowles held that – “In the circumstances and for the reasons have sought to describe and explain. Nigeria succeeds in its challenge under Section 68, I have not accepted all of Nigeria’s allegations, But the awards were obtained by fraud and the awards were and the way in which they were procured was contrary to public policy.
“What happened in this case is very serious indeed, and it is important that section 68 has been available to maintain the rule of law.”
The lawmaker stressed that Nigeria has been involved in a fight with P&ID since the company accused the Nigerian government of botching a deal by failing to provide gas to them leading to the ugly situation where the country suffered a $6.6 billion judgement debt in 2017 when the arbitration tribunal ordered the country to pay P&ID with interest to start counting from March 2013.
Nkemkanma recalled that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, in 2018, began investigating P&ID and found evidence of two bank transfers totalling $20,000 made by Dublin-based Industrial Consultants (International) Ltd. — part of the P&ID group of companies—to Grace Taiga, a Nigerian government lawyer who oversaw the award of the gas plant contract, thus exposing the level of shoddiness and corruption around the entire process.
The House therefore mandated “the Committees on Justice and Financial Crimes to investigate the conduct of all legal and other services providers involved in the P&ID deal and to report back within four weeks.”