President Buhari Faints As British Judge orders Irish firm PI&D Siezes 9 Billion Dollars of Nigeria Foreign Reserve Due To Ex president Goodluck Ebele Jonathans Mismanagement The company was awarded $6.6 billion in an arbitration decision over a failed project to build a gas processing plant in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar. With interest payments, the sum now tops $9 billion - some 20% of Nigeria’s foreign reserves
The judge’s decision, issued on Friday, converts the arbitration award to a legal judgement, which would allow P&ID to try to seize international assets.
Lawyers representing the Nigerian government argued the award should not be enforced because England was not the correct place for the case, and even if it were, the amount awarded was “manifestly excessive.”
Mr Justice Butcher of the Commercial Court rejected these arguments and said he would “receive submissions from the parties as to the precise form of order appropriate.”
A spokesman for Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari directed requests for comment to the Ministry of Justice. The country’s solicitor general Dayo Apata told Reuters that the government would appeal the decision.
“P&ID is committed to vigorously enforcing its rights, and we intend to begin the process of seizing Nigerian assets in order to satisfy this award as soon as possible,” said Andrew Stafford, Q.C. of Kobre & Kim, which represents P&ID.
The case involves a 2010 deal in which the Nigerian government agreed to supply gas to a processing plant in Calabar that P&ID – a firm founded by two Irish businessmen specifically for the project - would build and run.
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