NIGERIA’s vice president Yemi Osinbajo Monday afternoon meets with the country’s ministers over the ruling of a British court to award Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) the right to seize some $9 billion (N2.9 trillion in the official exchange rate of N305/$) in assets from the Nigerian government.
Our correspondent said the outcome of the meeting could determine Nigeria’s action on the court ruling.
A British judge had given a tiny private firm the nod to seize more than $9 billion in assets from the Nigerian government over a failed natural gas deal. The amount represents one-fifth of the foreign reserves held by Africa’s largest economy.
The decade-long dispute pits an unheralded firm founded by two Irish business partners against an energy-rich but a politically-troubled nation of 200 million people.
The 2010 deal between the Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID) company — widely reported to be registered in the British Virgin Islands — and the Nigerian government was meant to be a win-win for both sides.
It sued the Nigerian government for breaching the agreement by failing to provide the gas — or install the promised pipelines.
An arbitration tribunal in London awarded the firm $6.6 billion (5.9 billion euros) in damages in January 2017.
P&ID said the accrued interest of $1.2 million a day had pushed that amount to more than $9 billion — about one-fifth of Nigeria’s declared foreign reserves of $45 billion.
