A United Kingdom judge has ordered P&ID to make an interim payment of more than £1.5 million to Nigeria within 21 days to cover legal costs the country incurred as part of its successful application for the extension of time to challenge the arbitration award of $9.6 billion to the company.

The judge gave the order on Thursday when Nigeria appeared before it in a hearing held to decide procedural and costs issues relating to the FRN’s applications to challenge the arbitration award and to determine the short-term directions to trial. 

This latest order follows the major victory it secured on Friday last week when the court allowed the country to bring a fraud challenge against a $9.6 billion arbitration award obtained by vulture-fund-backed P&ID well outside the normal time limits.

“This is another crucial win for Nigeria in our ongoing fight against the vulture-fund-backed P&ID,” a spokesperson for the Attorney General of the Federation said in a statement announcing the latest development.  

“We are pleased that the English Courts have taken our fraud challenge seriously, and awarded us a substantial interim payment in respect of our successful application for an extension of time to challenge the award.”

With the order, Nigeria will now proceed to a full fraud trial, in its quest to avoid paying the arbitration award which is estimated to be one-third of the national budget.

The Nigerian government considers the order a “significant blow” to P&ID as will help speed up the trial and halt what it says are attempts by the company to delay the process.

“To date, P&ID and its financial backer VR Capital have not produced a single document or credible witness to challenge the FRN’s fraud evidence,” it said of the attempts.

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“Instead, they continue to resort to disseminating misleading claims, while taking every step possible to delay or obstruct our investigations across multiple jurisdictions.”

The Nigerian government has maintained over time that the contract that led to the arbitration was fraudulent and that it would work relentlessly to overturn it.

After securing two favourable court decisions, it restated the commitment to overturning “the injustice”, saying it “will not rest until we secure justice for the people of Nigeria – no matter how long it takes.  Investigations into the GSPA are ongoing, and we are confident that more of the truth will be revealed over the coming months.”

P&ID, a firm based in the British Virgin Islands, won a $9.6 billion arbitration award against the Nigerian government after the 2010 gas project collapsed.

The award accrued interest since 2013 and is now worth more than $9 billion.

However, Nigeria on September 3, secured a landmark victory in its pursuit to overturn a $10 billion judgment awarded against it in a case against P&ID in a failed gas deal in 2010.

Ross Cranston, a judge of the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, granted Nigeria’s application for an extension of time and relief from sanctions, in the nation’s bid to overturn a $10 billion judgement awarded against it.

The Southern Kaduna People’s Union, SOKAPU, has alleged that Governor Nasir el-Rufai was not ready for peace in the state.

The union observed that until the governor tenders apology to Southern Kaduna people and the elders over his derogatory comments against them, it will be taken that the peace process of the government is a ruse.

Reacting to the Peace Summit recently organized by the Nigeria Christians Pilgrim Commission, NCPC, in Southern Kaduna, SOKAPU’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Luka Binniyat said that Southern Kaduna leaders are always ready to participate in a genuine peace process in the state.

The governor, the statement explained, decided to initiate the peace summit as a face-saving measure, stressing that this is after he had called the leaders names and openly supported the Fulani herdsmen against their people in Southern Kaduna.

It said that the people are not against the peace summit, saying that what is happening in Southern Kaduna under the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is strange as the rural communities are being taken over by Fulani militia who are killing their people.

SOKAPU alleged that since 2015, attacks were targeted at Christian communities, saying that President Buhari and Governor El-Rufai are not saying the truth.

The statement observed that the Federal and Kaduna State governments are only trying to save their faces under intense criticism over the genocide and other atrocities.

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It said Kidnapping of Christians in Chikun and Kajuru has taken over N400 million paid as ransom to the Fulani kidnappers, adding that there is no week this year that pastors were not kidnapped or killed.

SOKAPU noted that under a genuine peace process, the organizers should have called those directly affected by the crisis and the perpetrators of the violence for discussion and arrive at a true peace accord.

The statement alleged that the people who were displaced are still living under sub-human conditions with no representatives of the victims and those who perpetrated the violence were not there, stressing that they only brought the intellectuals, government officials and their party men.

“So, there is the need to know them. They are inviting communities as observers. That is not how to bring about enduring peace. If you are talking about a genuine peace process, you have to bring the victims and those who perpetrated the atrocities together. How can there be peace if the more than 50,000 people displaced cannot go back to their homes and communities. How can there be peace if the invaders are still occupying the communities,” SOKAPU observed.

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