$9.6bn P&ID Debt: FG Set To Pay $200m Security Deposit, Today

The Federal Government has finally agreed to pay the $200million security deposit ordered by Justice Christopher Butcher of London Commercial Court in September in the ongoing gas dispute case between Nigeria and Process and Industry Development Limited (P&ID), it has been learnt.
The British court had asked Nigeria to pay $200million security payment in the court’s account while granting request to stay execution in the award of $9.6billion award in favour of P&ID.
In a statement by the embattled P&ID, last Saturday, the Federal Government’s legal team said during a hearing at the London court, last Friday that Nigeria would pay the $200million security deposit.
The statement was made available by the Associate Director, In-House, London, the media firm that represents P&ID, Chris Rogers, following an enquiry, yesterday.
The statement read in part, “Before Justice Butcher today (Friday) in London, the Nigerian legal team acknowledged that President Muhammadu Buhari has authorised the steps to provide a bank guarantee for the $200million in security that was ordered by the English court in September.
“Moreover, the following steps have already been taken by the Nigerian Government: Ministry of Finance has received approval to proceed with obtaining the bank guarantee; Minister of Finance has submitted a request to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to proceed with procuring the bank guarantee; the Central Bank of Nigeria has submitted a request to an unnamed foreign correspondent bank to issue the bank guarantee from London and provide the relevant information to the court.”
The Federal Government through the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation had filed an appeal before the London court to stop the order of September, 2019, to pay the $200million security deposit and the $9.6billion Tribunal Award in favour of P&ID.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who was part of the Federal Government’s delegation to London late September, disclosed to reporters in Abuja on October 2, that the government had begun the process of filing an appeal against the $200million security deposit.
He said the government retained international legal firm of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP, for the case.
Apart from the $200million, Mohammed said the government would be able to seek a refund of the $250,000 it was asked to pay to P&ID, if the appeal succeeded.
Last week, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, confirmed that the Federal Government had filed the appeal.
But P&ID’s statement on Saturday, following a hearing at the London court, indicated that the appeal had failed.
Unfortunately, the P&ID’s claim could not be independently verified as at the time of filing this report, yesterday.
Also, efforts made on Saturday to get the AGF Office to state its side of the case failed.
The spokesperson for the AGF, Dr Umar Gwandu, who was confronted with the claims by P&ID as to the alleged developments at the London court, last Friday, promised to get back to one of our correspondents.
As of the time of filing this report around 11.30pm, about eight hours after he was contacted, he had yet to get back.
Several calls made to his telephone lines thereafter were not responded to.
Also, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, did not respond to several calls and a text message sent to his line.
However, responding to the development in the statement, P&ID said the court hearing was a welcome development.
“The eleventh-hour gambit by Nigeria’s Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, to avoid paying the $200million in security to the English Court on November 25 has failed,” the company said.