British court orders P&ID to pay £1.5m costs to Nigeria

On Thursday, a United Kingdom court ordered the British Virgin Islands firm, Process and Industrial Development, to pay £1.5m to Nigeria within 21 days, TopNaija reports.

According a statement by Dr Umar Gwandu, the spokesperson for the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, the UK court ordered P&ID to pay the money to Nigeria to cover the legal costs incurred by the Federal Government in successfully obtaining the court’s permission for an extension of time to challenge the $10bn arbitral award the company obtained against Nigeria.

The statement read, “The Federal Republic of Nigeria today (Thursday) appeared in the English High Court for a scheduled hearing.

“The hearing followed the major victory secured by Federal Republic of Nigeria last Friday (September 4), allowing it to bring a fraud challenge against a $10bn arbitration award obtained by vulture-fund-backed P&ID well outside the normal time limits.

“FRN will now proceed to a full fraud trial. The hearing today was held to decide procedural and costs issues relating to the FRN’s applications to challenge the arbitration award, and to determine the short term directions to trial.

“Cranston J ordered P&ID to make an interim payment of more than £1.5 million within 21 days to cover legal costs the FRN incurred as part of their successful application for the extension of time to challenge the arbitration award and procedural hearing earlier in the year.

“A case management conference to determine the full trial window is scheduled to take place after November 2020.”