The Federal Government said it is pleased with the ruling of a court in the United Kingdom on the case involving the Process and Industrial Developments Limited.
The government’s reaction was contained in a statement on Friday by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
The statement says: “This is a major victory in our ongoing fight against the vulture-fund-backed P&ID, to overturn the injustice of the multi-billion-dollar arbitral award.
“In light of the new and substantive evidence presented regarding P&ID’s fraudulent and corrupt activities, the court has granted our application for an extension of time to hear our challenge out of normal time limits.”
The court, according to the statement, has allowed the government to bring its challenge well outside the normal time limits, due to the exceptional circumstances where Nigeria has uncovered evidence of massive fraud in procuring the award.
Delivering his judgement on thursday, Ross Cranston, a judge of the business and property courts of England and Wales, granted Nigeria’s application for an extension of time and relief from sanctions.
On 31st of January, 2017, a tribunal had ruled that Nigeria should pay P&ID $6.6 billion as damages, as well as pre- and post-judgment interest at 7 per cent.
The federal government had approached the court to establish that the contract was awarded on illegal terms.
