$10bn Claim: New Report Accuses British Home Secretary of Backing P&ID
The chances of Nigeria reversing a whopping $10 billion judgment debt over last weekend brightened following the revelation that the current British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, on several occasions allegedly rooted her support for an offshore oil and gas firm, Process and Industrial Development (P&ID), in the failed oil and gas deal with Nigeria.
The deal entered in 2010 by both parties is currently an issue of litigation at a London Court, owing to an award of damages now estimated at $10 billion against Nigeria.
A panel of arbitration had slammed the fine against Nigeria for allegedly defaulting in the contract entered with the offshore oil and gas firm.
Nigeria is currently presenting evidence to prove that the contract was a fraud from the outset hence cannot be held liable of any breach.
As the case progresses, however, investigation has revealed that Patel “sought to publicly intervene three times on behalf of an offshore company, which has been accused in a British court of obtaining a £100million contract from the Nigerian Government through corruption.”
The investigation reported by a British tabloid, The Independent, noted that the Home Secretary repeatedly backed P&ID in its long legal dispute with the Nigerian Government.
Besides the latest allegations, Patel is currently at the centre of a political storm following allegations of “bullying staff in her department.”
The allegations have led to calls for her resignation as Home Secretary “after an investigation concluded that she had breached the ministerial code of conduct.”
Although the report stated that her actions may have been “unintentional,” since the said intervention in the court case took place before she was appointed home secretary by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“She was joined in supporting the company by Shanker Singham, a prominent fellow Brexit advocate, who is now a government trade adviser, in the bitterly contested legal action,” The Independent reported.
According to the tabloid, Patel first publicly supported P&ID in an article for a newspaper, City AM, in November 2018, where she was quoted as saying that Nigeria “must honour its obligations to companies like P&ID” and pay the firm “almost $9billion (as the sum in legal action was at that stage). She condemned the further legal action by the Nigerian Government as a “running scandal, obstinate and flouting international law and convention.”