Nigerian lawyers were ‘doing the best they could…in a Kafkaesque system’ a court heard on the second day of the African country’s legal fight to overturn an $11.1bn arbitration award.
Federal Republic of Nigeria v Process & Industrial Developments Limited centres on an oil and gas contract concluded through alleged ‘fraud and bribery’ of senior legal representatives and key officials in the country’s government.
P&ID, an offshore company belonging to Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill, was awarded a contract for gas supply and processing by Nigerian government officials in 2010. The project did not start and P&ID began arbitration proceedings against Nigeria for breach of contract. P&ID was awarded $6.6bn, a bill which currently stands at $11.1bn with interest.
The Federal Republic of Nigeria took the dispute to the High Court in London claiming the arbitration was based on ‘fraud and bribery.’
Opening for P&ID, Lord Wolfson KC said: ‘The claim [Nigeria makes] is and has always been a conclusion in search of some facts. The conclusion had to be that there was a fraud because that is the only way the award can be challenged.
‘What we now have is a conclusion of desperate allegations of different kinds of fraudulent contact. None of Nigeria’s allegations afford any justifiable grants. There is no bribery, no perjury, no collusion.’
Wolfson described the case before Mr Justice Robin Knowles in the Business and Property Court in London’s Rolls Building as the consequence of ‘institutional incompetence.’
Wolfson told the court that P&ID demonstrated it wanted to fulfil its part in the agreement with Nigeria by obtaining technical designs and arranging finance. He added that even when it became apparent Nigeria was not going to fulfil its part of the contract, P&ID ‘amended the contract against our interests’ and when ‘that did not work and we started arbitration, we expressly said we are not terminating the contract.’
He added: ’The original case was that we could not perform the contract and we knew we could not, Nigeria now allege they could not perform the contract and we knew they could not perform.’
Wolfson said: ‘Everything about how [the lawyer who represented the Federal Republic of Nigeria during the jursidiction and liability phases] and the other lawyers acted shows they were acting in Nigeria’s interest and not against them. Frankly, [one] can look into the bundle at random and it will not show you anything other than the lawyers doing the best they could…in a Kafkaesque system.’
Lawyers, the court heard, when trying to get instructions and funding for arbitration were met with ‘two things: silence and buck passing.’
Wolfson said: ‘Buck passing may be common in many governments but it appears Nigeria have taken it to new levels.’ He described an ‘institutional paralysis all the way to the very top.’
P&ID denies any bribes were made to lawyers, officials, or anyone else.
The trial, which is expected to last eight weeks, continues.
