A company successfully sued the Nigerian government over a botched deal to build a natural gas plant and was awarded the amount as compensation.

The firm, Process and Industrial Developments Limited (P&ID), signed the deal with the West African country in 2010 but it fell through two years later amid claims of breach of terms.

P&ID sued the Nigerian government for failing to provide the gas or install the pipelines it had promised to build.

A British judge last month gave the British Virgin Islands registered firm the right to claim Nigeria's assets.

The amount is equivalent to about 20% of Nigeria's declared foreign reserves of $45bn.

Attorney General Abubakar Malami told BBC Focus on Africa that he is optimistic they will succeed in overturning the claim.

He said an investigation into the deal had revealed how government officials received bribes in order to approve it.

"Our investigation report has proven beyond doubt the existence of fraud, the existence of compromises, the existence of financial inducement, corruption and total deceit among others," he said.