The arbitration tribunal and Nigeria’s legal team that participated in P&ID case have received sticks from the UK judge, Robin Knowles, who overturned the controversial $11 billion arbitral award against Nigeria in the case, saying their failures enabled “unrealistic” damage claims to go unchallenged, reports Business Today NG.
Knowles, stated this while speaking at the Roebuck Lecture hosted by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London, United Kingdom.
According to him, he “struggled to accept what happened” before finally setting aside the award in 2023, just as he also described the case as one of the most troubling he had encountered in international arbitration.
While reflecting on the arbitration, Knowles faulted Nigeria’s legal representatives for failing to challenge the inflated claims presented by P&ID’s experts properly.
“The conduct and effort of Nigeria’s lawyers at the quantum stage deserved severe criticism,” he said.
The dispute originated from a 2010 gas supply agreement between the Nigerian government and Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), which was never implemented.
Recall that in 2017, a tribunal awarded P&ID $6.6 billion, with interest pushing the figure to over $11 billion by 2023.
But Justice Knowles ruled in October 2023 that the award had been secured through fraud, citing bribery of Nigerian officials and P&ID’s possession of privileged documents.
