A U.S. district court directed the Nigerian government and the British engineering company of Virgin Island, P&ID, to hold a telephone conference to decide if a pending contract disagreement could be settled without court interference.
District Judge Lorna Schofield said the parties would file a joint letter advising the court on the results of the consultation, and delegate it.
The recent news applies to an alleged bribery scheme and resulting arbitral demand of $9.6 billion which the Nigerian government is trying to reverse.
Earlier sources show that Nigeria is caught up in a fresh court dispute with the controversial British Virgin Island engineering company over the Nigerian authorities’ use of bank documents.
The corporation demanded a ‘pre-motion discovery meeting’ with the court in its attempt to stop the Nigerian government from using any information seized from US banks.
In May, as part of its efforts to overturn the controversial $9.6 billion P&ID fine, the Nigerian government demanded records of 60 companies and individuals from 10 U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
A former Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan; his wife, Patience Jonathan; and others, are among the individuals whose bank records were being searched.
Nigeria sought approval from a federal court in New York to compel documents on transactions concerning government officials who were in office when the state concluded a deal with Process & Industrial Developments Ltd., and who became embroiled in a expensive conflict with the firm.
P&ID stated in its claim that Nigeria had obtained considerable discovery “that is outside the scope of the subpoenas authorised by the Court”.
It requested a protective order requiring that “Nigeria destroy and stop using or distributing this information, which it should never have obtained in the first place.”
It also demanded an injunction prohibiting the use of any discovery obtained by Nigeria in the international proceedings for which Nigeria maintained that it was pursuing information in other Nigerian criminal inquiries and prosecutions.
But in its counter appeal, Nigeria urged the court, among other demands, to “reject P&ID’s baseless application.”
Last August, the P&ID case became a full-blown crisis for Nigeria, when a London judge ruled that P&ID could enforce the 2017 ruling of an arbitration tribunal, now totaling $9.6 billion including interest, which found the country infringed the deal.
Nigeria’s odds of annulling the giant penalty lie in proving the 2010 gas supply arrangement was a sham that P&ID and government officials failed.
An inquiry has found that the gas delivery system was planned to fail in part because the company had neither the expertise nor the government had developed the mechanisms required for its implementation.
In its latest order, the court noted that if any disputes remain after the parties meet and confer, the parties are to file letter briefs to the court simultaneously. They are also required to state their respective views about how the court can work out the remaining disagreements over the document.
“The letter briefs may be no greater than four pages, single spaced,” court documents said.
The court also noted that Nigeria described a proposed protective order that is “pending before the Court”, adding that it must provide the docket number of the proposed order.
In his response, Christopher Major, attorney to the Nigerian government disclosed that the docket number for the “Proposed Stipulated Protective Order Between Applicants and Respondent JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.”, is ECF 21.
Nigeria ‘s attorney added that counsel for JPMorgan Chase Bank and Process and Industrial Developments Limited were copied to the letter in a letter addressed to the court dated July 9.
The parties are expected to file concurrent letter briefs detailing the outcome of their July 21 telephone conference, the judge said.