A London court has thrown out a suit by the Process & Industrial Development (P&ID) seeking to appeal the judgement that quashed the $11 billion judgement debt award against Nigeria.
Justice Robin Knowles who threw out the ruling admitted that P&ID had paid bribes to Nigerian officials involved in the drafting of the gas supply and processing agreement (GSPA) in 2010.
He also found that P&ID was illegally in possession of Nigeria’s privileged legal documents during the arbitration hearings.
P&ID lawyers had argued that the judge failed to apply a “causation” requirement which would have shown if the arbitration award would still have been made if bribes had not been paid by P&ID to government officials.
They also argued that the privileged documents that were found in P&ID’s possession played no role in its victory at the arbitration.
But in the judgment on Thursday, the judge refused P&ID permission to appeal.
This effectively puts an end to the case as the company can no longer appeal.
