A United Kingdom Commercial Court said on Friday there was evidence of $700,000 (N301 million) bribe in the purported Gas Supply and Processing Agreement between the Government of Nigeria and Process and Industrial Developments (P & ID), an Irish firm.

The court granted Nigeria more time to appeal against the $9.6 billion arbitral award delivered in favour of P&ID over the controversial agreement.

In granting Nigeria’s prayer, Justice Ross Cranston of the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales declared: “Nigeria’s case in brief is that it has established a prima facie case of fraud against P&ID, which justifies the extension of time and will give it the opportunity to establish at trial its full ramifications for the arbitration.”

Nigeria had requested an extension of the time to appeal against the award after missing the initial 28 days deadline.

The Presidency on Friday hailed the ruling as right while Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), called it a victory against “vulture-fund-backed P&ID.”

The Irish firm had sought the amount as compensation for a project after it claimed it invested about $40 million after negotiating an agreement for the project between 2010 and 2012.

Justice Ross Cranston also noted the fact that Malami and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had done an excellent job in investigating P&ID.

The minister recently criticised the suspended Acting Chairman of the agency, Mr. Ibrahim Magu, for alleged poor handling of the probe of P&ID, and it was one of the reasons Magu was suspended and subsequently investigated.