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Nigeria secures landmark victory in P&ID contract suit – Malami

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The Federal Government has secured a landmark victory in its pursuit to overturn a 10 billion dollar judgment awarded against it in a case against Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID).

The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, in a statement in Abuja on Friday, said the court has granted Nigeria’s application for an extension of time and relief from sanctions due to the exceptional circumstances where the government has uncovered evidence of massive fraud in procuring the award.

Malami said the Court heard evidence from the government and the offshore shell company P&ID in relation to the gas supply and processing agreement (GSPA).

This agreement was entered into by the parties 10 years ago and which was never performed.

He said the Buhari-led administration, having inherited the dispute from the previous administration, only recently uncovered evidence that the GSPA was a sham commercial deal.

This was designed to fail from the start, and that its subsequent arbitral award was based on fraud and corruption.

He said the government relied on a number of ongoing investigations across multiple jurisdictions, including the U.., to build its case.

He said that the government would proceed to a full trial of the issues, where government’s substantive application to finally set aside the award would be heard.

He added that the government of Nigeria was pleased with the outcome from the High Court hearing.

“This is a major victory in our ongoing fight against the vulture-fund-backed P&ID, to overturn the injustice of the multi-billion dollar arbitral award.

“In light of the new and substantive evidence presented regarding P&ID’s fraudulent and corrupt activities, the Court has granted our application for an extension of time to hear our challenge out of normal time limits.

The Federal Government will now proceed to a full hearing of our fraud challenge in the coming months,” he said.

Wandoo Sombo

NEWSVERGE, published by The Verge Communications is an online community of international news portal and social advocates dedicated to bringing you commentaries, features, news reports from a Nigerian-African perspective. A unique organization, founded in the spirit of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, comprising of ordinary people with an overriding commitment to seeking the truth and publishing it without fear or favour. The Verge Communications is fully registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a corporate organization.

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