From Scam To Settlement: Nigeria Clinches Final Win Over P&ID In UK — Supreme Court Dismisses Last Appeal, Affirms £43m Award in Sterling

Nigeria has sealed a decisive legal triumph in its long and bruising battle with Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), as the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on Wednesday dismissed the company’s final appeal — affirming that the £43 million award in legal costs must be paid in British pounds, not in naira.

In a unanimous verdict delivered by a five-member panel led by Lord Robert Reed, the UK’s highest court ruled that the award must be settled in sterling — the same currency Nigeria used to pay its legal team during the fraud trial. Other members of the panel were Dame Simler, David Richards, Ben Stephens, and Patrick Hodge.

A Decade of Legal Warfare

The ruling closes one of the most protracted and consequential legal sagas in Nigeria’s recent history.
It all began in 2010 when P&ID, an offshore engineering firm, entered into a gas processing agreement with the Nigerian government to build a plant in Calabar, Cross River State. The deal collapsed, and P&ID accused Nigeria of breaching contract — a claim that led to an arbitral tribunal awarding the company $6.6 billion in 2017, later rising to $11 billion with interest.

Nigeria, however, fought back, describing the contract as a fraudulent scheme designed to defraud the country. In October 2023, Justice Robin Knowles of the Commercial Court in London agreed, ruling that the award had been “procured by fraud” and tainted by corruption. The judge found that P&ID had bribed Nigerian officials and obtained confidential government documents during arbitration, declaring the entire process compromised.

Following that ruling, the court ordered P&ID to pay Nigeria £43 million to cover legal costs and disbursements — a decision that set off the company’s now-failed appeal.

Final Defeat for P&ID

P&ID’s last-ditch argument before the UK Supreme Court was that Nigeria’s legal costs should be paid in naira, on the grounds that the country had converted its currency to sterling for the litigation. But the justices dismissed the claim, holding that English solicitors charged and were paid in sterling, and therefore, the cost order rightly stands in that currency.

The court also rejected P&ID’s claim that Nigeria would receive a “windfall” because of the naira’s depreciation, noting that currency fluctuations were immaterial to the underlying legal obligation.

With this final ruling, P&ID’s case has reached a definitive end in the UK, marking Nigeria’s complete vindication in a dispute once described as one of the most audacious attempts to defraud a sovereign nation.

For Nigeria, the verdict is not just a financial victory but a moral one — closing the book on a decade-long legal war that tested the nation’s resilience, reputation, and resolve on the global stage.