President Bola Tinubu on Monday commended the judgment delivered by Judge Robin Knowles of the Business and Property Court in London, awarding a landmark victory to the Federal Government of Nigeria over a firm known as Process & Industrial Development (P&ID) Limited.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, in a statement on Monday highlighted that “following Judge Knowles’ dismissal of the $11.5 billion (USD) value of the award plus accumulated interest, previously won by P&ID over a failed 2010 deal to allegedly build a gas processing plant, on the grounds that the award was obtained by fraud, President Tinubu commended the UK Court for prioritizing the merits of the case above all other considerations.”
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The President was cited to have declared: “This landmark judgment proves conclusively that nation states will no longer be held hostage by economic conspiracies between private firms and solitarily corrupt officials who conspire to extort and indebt the very nations they swear to defend and protect.
“Today’s victory is not for Nigeria alone. It is a victory for our long exploited continent and for the developing world at large, which has for too long been on the receiving end of unjust economic malpractice and overt exploitation.
“Nigeria is appreciative of the tremendous efforts of the defense team and acknowledges the role of the Federal Ministry of Justice and the Office of the Attorney-General in the process of defending Nigeria’s interest in this case.”
There has been apprehension that if the judgement had gone otherwise, it would cost the country a huge financial loss the pay the $11.5 billion to Process & Industrial Development (P&ID) Limited.
President Tinubu inherited the case after taking over from former President Muhammadu Buhari in May.