The Buhari administration is accusing a construction company registered in the British Virgin Islands of having bribed its way to an $11bn arbitration award against the Nigerian state.
The stakes of the 32-day trial could hardly be higher: if the High Court were to decide to enforce the arbitration tribunal’s decision, Nigeria would be liable to lose nearly a third of its foreign reserves – an amount equivalent to three times the country’s combined annual health and education budgets.
Nigeria has vowed to expose “corruption and bribery on an industrial scale”, including bribery of established English lawyers, as it seeks to convince Robin Knowles, the presiding judge, to set aside the award.
Origin of case
The case stems from the collapse of a 2010 gas deal between Nigeria and Process & Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID), a then-little-known company founded by two Irishmen, Michael
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