Watch: Protests at UK High Commission in Abuja over USD 9.6 bn judgment


Devdiscourse News Desk | Abuja | Updated: 02-09-2019 16:02 IST | Created: 02-09-2019 15:31 IST
Watch: Protests at UK High Commission in Abuja over USD 9.6 bn judgment
  • Country:
  • Nigeria

Protests have been held outside the United Kingdom High Commission in Abuja over USD 9.6 billion judgment against Nigeria, according to local media reports.

The protests have been organized by the members of the Coalition of Civil Society Group. The protestors carrying placards and banners are demanding or the reversal of the judgment. 

Armed policemen have taken strategic positions within the premises of the building.

Some of the inscriptions on the banners read; USD 9.6 billion Judgement Is a Big Fraud; 200 Million Nigerians Are Against USD 9.6 billion UK Judgement; Nigeria First, Always Always; Nigeria and Britain Are Friends Not Enemy. 

Last month a judge in London granted Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) the right to attempt to seize some USD 9 billion in assets from the Nigerian government over an aborted gas project.

The company was awarded USD 6.6 billion in an arbitration decision over the failed 2010 project to build a gas-processing plant in the southern Nigerian city of Calabar. With interest, the sum now tops USD 9 billion - 20 percent of Nigeria's foreign reserves.

However, the West African country's information minister Lai Mohammed said last week on Tuesday that Nigeria will not relinquish assets to the firm registered in the British Virgin Islands following the court ruling.

The USD 9 billion sums would be one of the largest financial penalties imposed on Nigeria, representing 20 percent of the currency reserves of Africa's largest economy and top oil producer.

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