By Jennifer Y Omiloli
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld its earlier judgment, ordering the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to pay BCE Consulting Engineers $22.6 million (N8.1 billion) in damages for a failed Consulting Service Contract.
The NNPC approached the Supreme Court through its counsel requesting a review of the judgment of July 5, 2019 on an alleged error of facts.
Judicial review is a method for reviewing prior decisions under the laws of the Supreme Court of Civil Procedure.
The plaintiffs argued that their initial objection was not considered by the court and that they rejected their cross-appeal with trial.
However, while delivering the judgment, Justice C. C. Nweze dismissed the appeal, saying that “this apex court can not be caught up with such an application, it is an abuse of justice.”
Therefore, Nweze has awarded N500,000 costs to be charged to the NNPC directly by counsel.
While, BCE asked the court in its counter-affidavit to ignore NNPC’s petition but urged it to uphold the award of the N8.1 billion judgment sum as NNPC broke an agreement with it.
BCE filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court, Lagos in Suit No, in July 1999.
FHC / L / C / I316/2000 v NNPC upon termination of the contract by the Corporation under the Federal Government Directive.
The Court ordered NNPC to pay BCE the sum of 22 on March 7, 2002. $6 million in damages for the unlawful termination of the contract.
NNPC was ordered by the Court of Appeal to deposit the Judgment Sum of $22.6 million in court as a condition of appeal complied with by NNPC.
The Court upheld the appeal of NNPC on 9 June 2011 on the grounds that the Federal High Court had no jurisdiction over conflicts arising from simple contracts.
On 13 June 2011, BCE, in behalf of the Company, appealed to the Supreme Court to set aside the previous judgment.
Upon delivery of the Supreme Court’s judgment dated July 5, 2019, NNPC reviewed the same with its counsel, Babalakin and Co, and had good reason to believe that the terms of the judgment had made a substantial miscarriage of justice.
Accordingly, NNPC (through its counsel) applied for Judicial Review, a process provided for by the Civil Procedure Rules of the Supreme Court for the review of existing judgments.
The business has submitted a separate request to the Federation’s Chief Justice requesting intervention to encourage prompt action.
“We confirm that sequel to the above application for Judicial Review of the Supreme Court judgment, BCE had filed a counter-affidavit dated October 10, 2019, in which it requested the court to disregard NNPC’s application.
“Additionally, BCE sought the order of the court in directing UBA Plc, the fundholder, to release the entire judgment sum of $22, 630,000 which NNPC deposited in an interest yielding account in favour of the Deputy Chief Registrar of the Court of Appeal in 2008, as condition for appeal, to them,” the memo reads.
