Arbitration-Related Litigation

We act in court proceedings arising out of arbitral processes where the integrity, enforceability, or finality of an award is engaged. Our arbitration-related litigation practice is focused on the supervisory interface between courts and arbitral tribunals, including recognition and enforcement, set-aside applications, and post-award relief, including in public-sector and infrastructure-related disputes. Our approach reflects a disciplined understanding of the limited scope of judicial intervention in arbitration, with emphasis on protecting awards from merits-based re-litigation, enforcing jurisdictional boundaries, and securing practical, enforceable outcomes through procedurally precise court applications.

Selected Experience:

Acted for a power project company in proceedings to recognise and enforce a final arbitral award arising from a Power Purchase Agreement against a state-linked counterparty. We pursued enforcement before the Federal High Court, including an alternative common law action on the award as a protective fallback, and sought judgment in the terms of the award together with ancillary relief to secure practical implementation, including access to the project site for decommissioning and removal of power assets.

Acted for an award creditor in proceedings resisting an application to set aside a high-value arbitral award arising from a public-sector construction project. The challenge sought, in substance, to reopen the tribunal’s conclusions on jurisdiction, contractual scope, pricing constraints and quantum. We advanced a defence focused on the Court’s supervisory (not appellate) role, including threshold objections, submissions on the narrow statutory grounds for intervention, and opposition to attempts to re-litigate the merits under the guise of jurisdictional and procedural complaints.

Acted for a contractor in proceedings to recognise and enforce a final arbitral award arising from the termination of a public-sector construction contract against a state government respondent. We pursued enforcement before the High Court through the statutory recognition and enforcement procedure, including enforcement of the award as interpreted and corrected by a post-award addendum, covering principal sums, pre- and post-award interest, and costs. The matter required a structured presentation of the enforcement prerequisites and non-payment, alongside relief framed to convert the award into an enforceable judgment.

Acted for a Nigerian State Government in defending a high-value arbitration arising from the termination and expiry of a public-private partnership arrangement in the ICT sector. The dispute raised issues of contract duration, allocation of operating costs, intellectual property ownership, and the limits of implied funding obligations under a memorandum of understanding approved at executive level.

Acted for a free zone enterprise in proceedings to recognise and enforce an interim arbitral award on jurisdiction arising from disputes under multiple EPC construction contracts. The tribunal upheld our objection to an improper attempt to pursue a single reference across separate contracts and arbitration agreements, declared the reference invalid, and awarded costs in our client’s favour. We pursued enforcement before the Federal High Court, including post-judgment interest and the costs of enforcement, to secure prompt recovery of the costs award and protect the client against further procedural manoeuvres.

Acted for a Nigerian bank in proceedings to set aside a final arbitral award rendered under the Arbitration and Mediation Act 2023 arising from a former executive’s employment-related claims. The award granted substantial monetary reliefs framed as employment benefits and general damages. We challenged the award on jurisdictional and public policy grounds, contending that the dispute fell outside the Act’s “commercial” scope and that applying the AMA’s commercial arbitration regime to a purely employment dispute engaged the set-aside grounds, including conflict with public policy and decisions beyond the scope of a valid submission under the Act.

Experience

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