Advocacy & Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice

PUC has been involved in nearly all the landmark communications litigation in Nigeria including the pioneer lawsuit against, NCC and others by Motophone Limited challenging the revocation of its spectrum and mobile cellular licences. We have also represented the NCC in a number of other lawsuits that challenged its decisions pursuant to the Nigerian Communications Act.

In 2000 the Federal Government instituted a Commission of Inquiry into the management of NITEL. PUC was one of three firms which represented NITEL, and was solely responsible for providing all the specialized support and advice, in communications law and practice, for the representation of NITEL.

PUC is representing several individuals and corporate persons in two-pronged landmark litigation that seek to reverse a recent foreign direct investment of more than US$1bn in one of Nigeria's leading mobile telephony companies. We successfully defended the shareholders of the same leading mobile telephony company in an international arbitration in respect of the pre-emptive rights in a Shareholders Agreement. In two different proceedings, we successfully set aside an arbitral award against NITEL on the ground that it was not a party to the arbitration agreement even though the agreement was for its benefit and defended the company in an arbitral claim brought against it by a former consultant in respect of its headquarters building.

We won a taxation lawsuit against a Nigerian Local Government in favour of a multinational oil and gas company. A sister lawsuit against another Local Government is pending. We are representing the same client in another taxation lawsuit against a state government in respect of tax assessments of over N4billion.

We are representing the Securities & Exchange Commission, the Nigerian capital markets and investments regulatory agency, in two landmark suits that seek to define the statutory ambit of the Commission to investigate capital market matters.

We represent a multinational oil and gas company in a N1.2billion oil spill claim by an oil-producing community.

We successfully defended Nigeria's pioneer trading conglomerate and its former multinational parent in a land litigation in which the claimants were claiming, inter alia, for ownership and arrears of rent . The losing parties have appealed against the judgment and we are defending the multinational and the Nigerian conglomerate before the appellate court. Also, we are prosecuting a matter on behalf of NITEL in which the plaintiffs claim to be the original owners of the prime property owned by NITEL and are seeking to reclaim ownership of the property.

Between 2001 and 2004, we represented Niger State of Nigeria in six constitutional matters before the Supreme Court. All the suits sought to define the constitutional limits of Federal Government in respect to revenues that accrue to the Federation Accounts, enactment of anti-corruption legislation, urban and regional planning matters, sharing of liabilities between an older state and a new state that was created from the older one. Within the same period 2001 and 2004 we also successfully handled several criminal appeals on behalf of Akwa Ibom State before the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

We routinely and successfully handle employment matters for our clients in all the superior courts of Nigeria, ie, High Courts, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

We successfully represented a bank in a case before the Supreme Court where the plaintiff alleged negligence by our client resulting in alleged financial losses.

The Nigerian sole representative of a leading multinational earth-moving equipment manufacturer, instructed us to negotiate an out-of-court settlement in a product warranty claim for US$5,746,895.68 instituted before a High Court against the company and its principal by a state government agency. Based on our efforts, the matter was amicably resolved and the terms agreed entered as the judgment of the court. We also successfully represented the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiary responsible for the importation and distribution of refined petroleum products in a product liability claim in regard to refined petroleum products allegedly imported by the company. This landmark case was instituted by a human rights and environmental group.