Justice ROBIN KNOWLES of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales has ruled in favour of Nigeria in the enforcement of an 11 billion dollar Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited arbitration award.

With the judgement handed down physically in open court, and electronically by email to the parties, Nigeria succeeded in stopping the enforcement of the award which was initially in favour of P&ID.

According to the judge, the award against Nigeria by the company was obtained by fraud.

In January 2010, P&ID, a company founded by two Irish business partners, signed a Gas Supply and Processing Agreement with Nigeria to develop a processing plant in Calabar, the Cross River State capital but the deal failed in August 2012 and the company sought a 5.96 billion dollars compensation from Nigeria with arbitration proceedings against the country at the London Court of International Arbitration.

Subsequently, Nigeria filed an appeal against the enforcement of the award and the court granted the relief sought by the country in September 2020. The Nigerian side argued that there was enough evidence that the contract and the arbitration award were procured by fraud.

In his ruling, the judge not only agreed that the arbitration awards were obtained by fraud but also that the way they were procured was contrary to public policy.