Thread by @OrjiUka

Presently in court for the P&ID Ltd vs Nigeria proceedings coming up before the Mr Justice Butcher. It is safe to say the rest of the country - apart from those that went to New York - is here. Looking forward to an interesting day.

First major development

After hearing from Mr Matovu QC on behalf of Nigeria, Mr Justice Butcher indicates that he is minded to grant Nigeria permission to appeal against his judgment, to the Court of Appeal. Subject of course to hearing from counsel to P&ID Ltd.

After hearing two forceful arguments on the question of whether to grant Nigeria permission to appeal, Mr Justice Butcher has now invited arguments on whether to grant Nigeria stay of execution of the judgment. Arguments will proceed on the basis that permission will be granted.

Bombshell

Both sets of counsel and the Judge agree that the criminal investigation launched by Nigeria over the award of the GSPA to P&ID Ltd has no relevance whatsoever to the proceedings before the court.

But this is unsurprising.

The court having heard both counsel's arguments on whether to grant stay of execution of the judgment has indicated that he is seriously considering granting a stay of execution. However such order will be made conditional on the payment by Nigeria INTO COURT of the sum of $250m.

The court has considered that the award attracts interest of $1.2m every day. And acting on the basis that the appeal will take approx 208 days, the Court is considering ordering Nigeria to pay the $250m into court pending the hearing of the appeal.

If Nigeria fails to make the payment after a certain date, P&ID Ltd will be permitted to take steps to enforce the entire $9.6billion award sum and interest, and pay the proceeds of the enforcement into court pending the hearing of the appeal.

The Court has therefore asked counsel to Nigeria to indicate how much he thinks Nigeria will need to make such a payment. Counsel to Nigeria understandably has no such instruction and has asked for time to take proper instruction. Court grants a stand down.

Case now adjourned to 2:30pm for delivery of judgment.

Been an interesting day just as I expected.

Please remind me to do a separate thread or even an article on How the Nigerian Judiciary can Save Itself from Itself.

This is not rocket science.

The Commercial Court in London coram Mr Justice Butcher has now granted Nigeria permission to appeal against the judgment delivered in favour of P&ID Ltd against Nigeria in August. The court also granted Nigeria a conditional stay of execution of the judgment.

The condition for the suspension of the execution of the judgment is that Nigeria must within 60 days pay into the court the sum of $200m. Additionally Nigeria must within 14 days pay to P&ID Ltd the interim cost of the proceedings accessed so far at $250m.

If Nigeria fails to comply with the conditions of the Stay, the order will be lifted and P&ID Ltd will be entitled to bring an application for the immediate enforcement of the judgment. For the avoidance of doubt the court gave no conditions for the permission to appeal.

Finally Nigeria's oral application for permission to appeal against today's ruling was immediately refused by the court.

That gentlemen is the undiluted account of what transpired in court. I now hand over to those whose job it is to spin.