Hundreds of civil rights activists on Monday stormed the British High Commission and Embassy of Ireland in the Nigerian capital Abuja to reject a recent court judgment which awarded a $9.6bn damage against Nigeria over breach of gas contract with a British firm.
The protesters displayed various placards decrying the August 20 judgment of the British Business and Property Court led by Justice Butcher. The court had granted a request by Process & Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) to enforce a 2013 award against Abuja by a District Circuit Court in Washington DC.
The judgment allows the firm to take over $9.6bn worth of Nigerian assets in Britain, following alleged breach of a 2010 oil and gas contract involving the P&ID and Abuja. Nigeria has dismissed the judgment as “a conspiracy to cause economic damage” to the country.
The protesters in Abuja described the judgment as a “big fraud” and called on London to ensure the judgment is reversed.
“We are strongly opposed to this judgment. We have come here to register our protest that we won’t submit to second slavery. We will not allow some persons to take wealth belonging to 200 million Nigerians,” Etuk Bassey, one of the protest leaders, told Anadolu Agency, dismissing the ruling as “pure sabotage.”
“The judgment was in bad light and is capable of destroying a wholehearted relationship built over the years between the Nigeria government and the British government. We use this medium to express our dissatisfaction to this illegal process and lack of due recognition to our sovereignty as a nation and the interest of the Nigeria people.”