There’re other contractors who defraud Nigeria in such out of court settlements, Buhari reacts to P&ID ruling

Nigeria’s victory in the $11 billion Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited arbitration ruling was deemed “worth the struggle” by former president Muhammadu Buhari, on Saturday.

After more than five years of legal wrangling, Nigeria managed to block the enforcement of the $11 billion arbitration verdict in favour of P&ID on Monday.

Justice Robin Knowles of the Commercial Courts of England and Wales upheld Nigeria’s plea in an email-delivered ruling, citing fraud as the reason for the award’s acquisition.

Reacting in a statement titled ‘A Matter of Principle’ on Saturday, Buhari said it would have cost Nigerians a lot of money, with citizens losing out on basic amenities that the money could have been used for if the country had lost the arbitration dispute.

The former president noted that there are other faceless contractors in such it instances “who all too often quietly take Nigeria for many millions in out of court settlements”.

“We won, and all decent people can sleep easier as a result. Justice Robin Knowles said Nigeria had been the victim of a monstrous fraud. But it was a close-run thing,” Buhari said.

“But ordinary Nigerians never took the decisions that ended up before Justice Knowles. Had Nigeria lost, it would have required schools not to be built, nurses not to be trained and roads not repaired, on an epic scale, to pay a handful of contractors, lawyers and their allies – for a project that never broke ground.”

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In response to the demand that Nigeria pay the arbitration award, Buhari said he gave his then-chief of staff, Abba Kyari, and the former attorney general of the federation, Abubakar Malami, a mission to find a way for Nigeria to have a fair trial.

“Nigeria was in court in London, trying to talk down liability and costs. Back at home, fixers were looking to work out a quiet settlement. This is often the way. A lot of contracts end up in dispute,” Buhari said.

“People, including out of work ex-British Cabinet Minister Priti Patel, were queuing up to insist we paid, or risk Nigeria becoming an untrustworthy trade pariah.

“It was clear that far from the whole story had been told. I tasked Abba Kyari, my chief of-staff and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, with finding a way, even at that late stage and despite so much conflicting advice, to get us a fair hearing.

“We began to find a huge amount of evidence, not all of which Justice Knowles was to accept. But he agreed that P&ID had paid bribes.

“He agreed that one of P&ID’s founders had committed perjury. And he agreed that P&ID had somehow found in its possession a steady supply of Nigeria’s privileged internal legal documents, outlining our plans, strategies and problems.

“We need better contracts, in the public and private sector. And we need greater transparency: the reality is that, had P&ID not conjured up quite such an outlandish ransom, they may have found themselves in the same place as the myriad other invisible contractors who all too often quietly take Nigeria for many millions in out of court settlements.

“Sterner sanctions are indicated for Nigerian public officials who have been proven to connive with foreign criminals to defraud our country.

“Nigeria has won this battle with corruption, but the war is far from over.”

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