THE Federal Government stated that it has recovered a $200 million bond paid in arbitration related to its successful case against Process & Industrial Development (P&ID) concerning an $11 billion judgment debt.
The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, revealed this during a press briefing held late Thursday, May 22.
He disclosed similarly that the Nigerian government expects to recover its legal costs incurred during litigation, which are worth “tens of millions” of pounds.
According to the AGF, the favourable outcome of the case resulted in the release of Nigeria’s $200 million bond.
“For completeness, I want to say that before we went into this arbitration, there was a demand for a deposit or bond of $200 million, which Nigeria paid. After our success, this bond was released,” Fagbemi reportedly said.
He stressed that the legal team’s ability to navigate the complexities of international arbitration exposed the fraudulent foundations of the initial award.
The ICIR had reported that the judgment debt was given in favour of Nigeria in a London Court on Monday, October 23, 2023.
The ruling came after five years of legal fireworks, awarded to the advantage of Nigeria, as the court quashed the $11 billion arbitration award in favour of P&ID.
Nigeria was embroiled in a fight with P&ID over a failed 2010 deal to develop a gas processing plant, which the company inflicted a $9 billion judgment that rose to $11 billion.
P&ID claimed Nigeria violated the terms of its agreement by failing to provide gas for the power plant it wanted to build for the country.
This was claimed to have frustrated the construction of the gas project agreed to by the government of former President Umaru Yar’Adua and deprived P&ID of the potential benefits expected from 20 years’ worth of gas supplies with “anticipated profits of $5 to $6 billion.”
During his time in office, former President Goodluck Jonathan reached an out-of-court agreement for the payment of $850 million and passed on disbursement to the administration of the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari frustrated the idea of paying the negotiated sum, set aside the settlement agreement, and challenged the enforcement of the award before the English Commercial Court.