By Ikechukwu Nnochiri, Abuja

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, has disclosed that the Court of Appeal in the United Kingdom, on Friday, validated Nigeria’s claim for post-judgment costs in its legal victory over Industrial Developments Limited, P&ID, to be paid in Pound Sterling.

The AGF, in a statement made available to newsmen by his media aide, Mr. Kamarudeen Ogundele, said he was delighted to receive report of the decision of the court from lawyers representing Nigeria in the UK.

He described the court verdict as Nigeria’s latest victory in its fight against “corruption and extortion by litigation hawks.”

“Consequent upon our success in defeating the fraudulent USD 11 billion claim by P&ID last year, Nigeria is continuing its efforts to recover its substantial costs from P&ID and its vulture fund backers. 

“Today (being the 12th day of July 2024), the United Kingdom Court of Appeal validated Nigeria’s claim for the post-judgment costs to be paid in Pound Sterling (GBP), which P&ID tried to reduce drastically by claiming that Nigeria should only be entitled to recover its costs in Naira, which evidently will produce a much lower cost. 

“This was another misconceived and desperate attempt by fraudsters to deprive the Nigerian people of hard-earned public revenue. 

“As a government, we are very determined to recover these costs and make P&ID and its US funders pay for their scam so as to serve as a deterrence to others of their ilk. 

“We commend the dedication and tenacity of our legal team for this accomplishment,” the statement further read. 

It will be recalled that P&ID sued Nigeria for allegedly breaching the terms of a gas supply and processing agreement contract it reportedly signed in 2010.

Based on the suit, a tribunal in the United Kingdom, in 2017, ordered Nigeria to pay the firm $6.6 billion as damages, as well as pre- and post-judgment interest that amounted to about $11 billion.

However, dissatisfied with the judgement, Nigeria lodged an appeal that was eventually decided in its favour last year by the Commercial Court in the UK.