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P&ID’s $6.6b appeal fails as Nigeria wins in UK Court

Published

5 months ago

June 11, 2025

P&ID’s $6.6b appeal fails as Nigeria wins in UK Court

In a major legal victory for Nigeria, a UK appeal court has dismissed an application filed by a director of Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) seeking to challenge a High Court ruling that overturned a controversial $6.6 billion arbitration award against the Nigerian government.

The appeal was filed by Seamus Andrew, counsel to P&ID during the original arbitration proceedings. According to the court judgment obtained by PREMIUM TIMES, Andrew became a director of P&ID in October 2017 after acquiring a stake in the company through his firm, Lismore Capital Limited.

Andrew’s request to appeal the High Court’s decision was dismissed, reinforcing an earlier judgment that had set aside the $6.6 billion award initially granted to the British Virgin Islands-based company in 2017.

Justice Robin Knowles of High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts of England and Wales Commercial Court had on 21 December 2023 handed down his ruling, setting aside the award and refusing P&ID leave to appeal.

His order, however, contained a general liberty to apply to the judge.

Jia Wei Lee, a counsel to Mr Andrew, sent an email to the judge’s clerk a day after, stating that Mr Andrew would not be making an application for permission to appeal to the judge.

He noted that, rather, Mr Andrew would file an appellant notice seeking permission to appeal directly from the Court of Appeal.

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“No disrespect is intended by seeking permission directly from the Court of Appeal. The reason for this choice is that, given that Mr Andrew’s application was not considered and determined at the consequential hearing, and no extension of time was granted, the lower court is now functus officio and no longer has jurisdiction to determine an application for permission to appeal,” the court document stated.

In their verdict on Tuesday, Sir Julian Flaux, Lord Justice Phillips and Lord Justice Jeremy Baker remarked that “this court then analysed the relevant provisions of CPR 52.3 and the Practice Direction, concluding that the proper practice was to apply for permission to appeal to the first instance judge at the hand down of the judgment.”

The court document noted that Mr Andrew’s appellant’s notice in the court had been issued on 21 December 2023, more than five weeks after the date for filing any appellant’s notice with the Court of Appeal which, under relevant law, was 21 days after the hand-down of the judgement, that is 13 November 2023.

According to Justice Knowles’ decision of 23 October 2023, P&ID paid bribes to Grace Taiga, director of legal at Nigeria’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources, in connection with a gas contract signed in 2010 and failed to mention it when P&ID initiated the legal action over the botched deal. The judge also observed that P&ID had improperly retained and used internal documents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that it had received during the arbitration.

Many of the documents were clearly subject to legal professional privilege and were confidential documents which P&ID was not eligible to see.

“The documents were transmitted to P&ID deliberately by the individuals in Nigeria who procured them. FRN did not authorise their release to and retention by P&ID. Among those acting for P&ID who received the FRN internal legal documents were Mr Cahill, Mr Andrew and Mr Trevor Burke,” the court paper said.

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“P&ID has offered no sensible explanation for why these documents were leaked by [Nigeria’s] lawyers and has presented this Court with a conspiracy of silence. The obvious and correct inference is that they were obtained through corruption of [Nigeria’s] legal advisers carried out by P&ID and Mr Adebayo. … Mr Murray all but admitted in his oral evidence that [they] were procured by corruption, and no P&ID witness proffered an otherwise honest explanation”.

Recall that in January 2010, Nigeria and P&ID entered into a gas supply and processing agreement, requiring the company to build and operate an accelerated gas development project at Adiabo in the Odukpani Local Government Area of Cross River State. The Nigerian Government was to source natural gas from oil mining leases (OMLs) 123 and 67 operated by Addax Petroleum and supply it to P&ID for processing into fuel suitable for power generation.

P&ID alleged that Nigeria breached the contract after negotiations were opened with the Cross River State government to allocate land for the project.

It claimed that efforts to settle the matter out of court with the Nigerian government failed, prompting the company to institute legal action.

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An arbitral tribunal awarded $6.6 billion in damages against Nigeria and in favour of P&ID in January 2017. The sum later ballooned to more than $11 billion due to an accumulation of interest.

Nigeria challenged the award in December 2019, claiming that P&ID obtained the contract by bribing officials of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and corrupting the country’s lawyers to gain access to confidential documents while the arbitration was on.

In October 2023, Nigeria won the bid to set aside the arbitration award after its lawyers argued that the company intended to use litigation to make money out of the situation.

P&ID, founded by Irishmen Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill, had been pursuing the claim since 2012.

In his ruling, Justice Knowles noted that P&ID and its lawyers were “driven by greed and prepared to use corruption; giving no thought to what their enrichment would mean in terms of harm for others.”

In July 2024, an English Court of Appeal rejected the bid by P&ID to set aside a previous judgement reversing the company’s $11 billion damages claim against Nigeria. The court noted that the decision of a London high court on 21 December 2023, throwing out the $11 billion award, stands.

P&ID’s $6.6b appeal fails as Nigeria wins in UK Court

(PremiumTimes)

News

Soludo re-elected as Anambra Governor, wins in landslide with 422,664 votes

Published

9 hours ago

November 9, 2025

Trends Admin

Professor Chukwuma Soludo

Soludo re-elected as Anambra Governor, wins in landslide with 422,664 votes

The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Professor Chukwuma Soludo, has been declared winner of the Anambra State governorship election, securing a landslide victory across the 21 local government areas of the state.

The Returning Officer, Professor Edoba Omoregie, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, announced Soludo’s victory at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Awka after the final collation of results.

Omoregie said Soludo polled a total of 422,664 votes to defeat his closest rival, Nicholas Ukachukwu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who scored 99,445 votes. The Labour Party (LP) candidate, George Moghalu, came third with 10,576 votes.

Other results showed: African Democratic Congress (ADC) – 8,208; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – 1,401; Young Progressives Party (YPP) – 37,753; Action Alliance (AA) – 1,145; and African Action Congress (AAC) – 292 votes.

The election, held on November 8, recorded 2,788,864 registered voters, 598,228 accredited voters, 584,054 valid votes, 11,244 rejected votes, and a total of 595,298 votes cast.

Election Incidents

INEC confirmed cases of ballot snatching and disruptions in some areas. Votes from Bridge Head 2 Ward in Onitsha South LGA were nullified after ballot snatching at the point of collation.
In Nri, Anaocha LGA, results were cancelled due to overvoting and violence, while two polling units in Anambra West LGA were also voided for similar reasons.

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The election featured 16 governorship candidates, with voting beginning at various times across the 21 LGAs.

Allegations of Vote-Buying

Candidates of the APC, APGA, and Labour Party had raised concerns over alleged vote-buying in parts of the state.
The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) reported instances where party agents allegedly distributed cash and food items in locations including Achalla, Igbariam, Utuh, and Ezira.

“These incidents expose how impunity, voter desperation, and weak enforcement continue to undermine democracy,” CJID said, calling for stronger law enforcement and civic education to tackle the problem.

However, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Anambra, Queen Elizabeth Agwu, dismissed the allegations, saying no concrete evidence had been presented.

“Vote-buying is a serious offence. Anyone making such claims should provide facts and figures. You can’t just go on television and allege vote-buying everywhere without evidence,” she stated.

Breakdown of Results by Local Government Area

Dunukofia: APGA – 14,892 | APC – 3,284 | LP – 71 | ADC – 232
Njikoka: APGA – 22,213 | APC – 5,687 | LP – 311 | ADC – 236
Awka North: APGA – 15,895 | APC – 3,661 | LP – 299 | ADC – 815
Aguata: APGA – 35,559 | APC – 4,125 | LP – 124 | ADC – 301
Orumba South: APGA – 19,818 | APC – 2,828 | LP – 16 | ADC – 361
Orumba North: APGA – 24,664 | APC – 2,615 | LP – 131 | ADC – 115
Oyi: APGA – 18,882 | APC – 5,118 | LP – 3,641 | ADC – 167
Anambra East: APGA – 14,665 | APC – 3,108 | LP – 304 | ADC – 157
Ayamelum: APGA – 13,340 | APC – 7,478 | LP – 117 | ADC – 470
Nnewi North: APGA – 20,320 | APC – 5,441 | LP – 1,140 | ADC – 553
Nnewi South: APGA – 17,286 | APC – 9,281 | LP – 73 | ADC – 127
Ogbaru: APGA – 22,803 | APC – 3,768 | LP – 347 | ADC – 465
Onitsha North: APGA – 24,225 | APC – 4,677 | LP – 500 | ADC – 514
Onitsha South: APGA – 15,742 | APC – 4,156 | LP – 615 | ADC – 231
Anaocha: APGA – 20,118 | APC – 5,956 | LP – 483 | ADC – 255
Idemili North: APGA – 25,498 | APC – 6,383 | LP – 1,275 | ADC – 722
Idemili South: APGA – 17,224 | APC – 6,015 | LP – 276 | ADC – 213
Ekwusigo: APGA – 18,749 | APC – 2,973 | LP – 194 | ADC – 261
Awka South: APGA – 27,896 | APC – 5,038 | LP – 520 | ADC – 1,726
Anambra West: APGA – 9,318 | APC – 3,428 | LP – 58 | ADC – 152
Ihiala: APGA – 23,557 | APC – 4,425 | LP – 81 | ADC – 135

Soludo re-elected as Anambra Governor, wins in landslide with 422,664 votes

News

Don’t test Trump’s resolve, US lawmaker warns Nigeria

Published

10 hours ago

November 9, 2025

Trends Admin

US lawmaker Riley Moore

Don’t test Trump’s resolve, US lawmaker warns Nigeria

An American lawmaker, Riley Moore, has warned the Nigerian government not to underestimate the United States President Donald Trump’s resolve to act on the alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

Moore, who is leading a US congressional probe into what he described as the “slaughter of Christians” across Nigeria, issued the warning in an interview with Fox News on Saturday.

“Do not test President Trump’s resolve. He is serious about ending the ongoing slaughter of Christians in Nigeria,” Moore said.

He urged Abuja to cooperate with Washington in efforts to protect Christians and end the violence.

“I’m asking the Nigerian government to do the right thing and work with the United States to protect Christians and stop the killings,” he added.

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The warning follows Trump’s recent move to designate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” over alleged religious persecution.

Some Republican lawmakers have also hinted at the possibility of U.S. intervention, accusing the Nigerian government of failing to safeguard religious minorities.

However, Nigerian officials have repeatedly dismissed the allegations, insisting that the government protects all citizens regardless of their faith or background.

The U.S. congressional investigation led by Moore is part of renewed American scrutiny of Nigeria’s handling of religious violence, particularly in the Middle Belt and northern regions. The Nigerian government has consistently argued that the killings are driven by banditry and communal conflicts, not religion, and that it continues to work with international partners to address insecurity nationwide.

Don’t test Trump’s resolve, US lawmaker warns Nigeria

News

NYSC extends 2025 Batch ‘C’ registration by 48 hours over network glitches

Published

1 day ago

November 8, 2025

Trends Admin

Corps members (NYSC)

NYSC extends 2025 Batch ‘C’ registration by 48 hours over network glitches

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has extended the registration period for the 2025 Batch ‘C’ mobilisation exercise by 48 hours, moving the deadline to midnight on Tuesday, November 11, 2025.

The extension follows persistent network challenges that have hampered the registration process for many prospective corps members (PCMs).

In a statement signed by Caroline Embu, Director of Information and Public Relations, the NYSC apologised for the inconvenience caused and assured affected applicants that technical teams were working “round the clock” to restore smooth operations.

“While Management regrets the inconvenience this might have caused our valued PCMs, we wish to assure all that we are working round the clock to resolve the issues and ensure they enjoy seamless registration,” the statement read.

The scheme urged prospective corps members to take advantage of the extended window to complete their registration, expressing appreciation for their patience and understanding.

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“In view of this regrettable development, Management has extended the registration period by 48 hours till midnight of Tuesday, November 11, 2025, to enable our enthusiastic PCMs conclude their registration,” the NYSC added.

Meanwhile, several PCMs have voiced frustration over the technical difficulties, with many citing failed confirmation emails and prolonged delays despite multiple attempts.

Yusuf Abubakar Umar, one of the affected applicants, wrote on Facebook:

“I’ve been trying to register since 4 a.m., and like many others, I haven’t received any confirmation email.”

Another PCM, Recheal Joseph Ani, said:

“Honestly, I was in the café since 6 a.m. today and up till now I have not gotten an email to proceed with my registration.”

The 2025 Batch ‘C’ online registration exercise initially opened on November 4 and was scheduled to close on November 9 before the extension was announced.

The NYSC reassured prospective corps members that system upgrades are ongoing to prevent a recurrence of such network disruptions in future registration exercises.