Olisa Agbakoba, Senior Partner and Head of the Arbitration and ADR practice group at Olisa Agbakoba Legal, has issued a caution to the Nigerian government, urging vigilance when entering into international contracts to prevent a recurrence of the legal battle with Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID) Limited.
Agbakoba, who also serves as the chair of the national arbitration policy committee established by the outgoing Attorney General of the federation, Abubakar Malami, conveyed his concerns during an exclusive interview with BusinessDay.
In the interview, Agbakoba praised the Nigerian government for successfully overturning the arbitration award, highlighting the rarity of such a feat.
He said, “We’re very lucky to come out of this because you do not overturn an arbitration award easily. It is the third time in UK history that an award is overturned, and kudos to the Nigerian government, they did an excellent job,” Agbakoba told The BusinessDay Exclusive, an interview programme on burning national issues with top social and economic commentators.
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Agbakoba went on to address a broader issue facing Nigeria, emphasizing that the country is embroiled in approximately 1,000 pending cases globally due to the government’s perceived lack of commitment to honouring its contracts. He attributed this problem to inconsistent contract practices and policy reversals by successive administrations. He advised the Nigerian government to treat contract agreements with greater seriousness and review the way policies are overturned.
The caution comes in the wake of the recent developments in the legal battle between Nigeria and P&ID. On October 23, 2023, the Business and Property Court in London, presided over by Justice Robert Knowles, officially ended the enforcement of an $11 billion arbitration case initially awarded to P&ID on January 31, 2017, by the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), under the jurisdiction of Justice Christopher Butcher. The initial arbitration ruling had ordered Nigeria to pay $6.6 billion to P&ID for an alleged breach of contract.
The roots of this legal battle can be traced back to January 2010 when the government, led by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, entered into a Gas Supply and Processing Agreement with P&ID. However, by August 2012, the agreement unravelled as P&ID failed to produce the expected results. P&ID accused Nigeria of failing to provide the required gas supply for the project and subsequently took legal action, alleging a breach of contract.
