By Olusegun Olanrewaju (Lagos) and Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The last, it seems, has not been heard about the controversial Paris Club refund.
Yesterday, state governors came out of their shells to gun business tycoon, Ned Nwoko, concerning deductions in the fund, saying consultants were still owed some $68 million, and not $418 million.
Nwoko, the Lead Consultant of Linas International and former member of the House of Representatives, had taken a position of the fund that was viewed as absolving the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, of any wrongdoing over the fund.
But state governors, yesterday picked on Nwoko, who was only reacting to the flurry of allegations and claims trailing his company’s demand for the payment of fees from the accounts of state governments and local government councils in the country, on Saturday, in Abuja.
Nwoko was trailed by outbursts from the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, regarding the Paris Club refund.
Malami had earlier featured at the weekly briefings coordinated by the Presidential Media Team, on August 11, where he spoke extensively on issues surrounding the refund.
He stated that there was no basis for agitation by the NGF concerning deductions from the Paris Club refund paid to the consultants they hired.
Malami had also described the governors’ action as merely crying over spilled milk.
The governors, after their deliberations at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday, accused the minister of orchestrating the deductions from their funds to settle the consultancy fees.
But Nwoko said there was no basis for agitation by the governors concerning deductions from the Paris Club refund paid to the consultants they hired.
Nwoko’s company is the lead consultant for the recovery of over deductions from Paris and London club’s debt buyback funds. He said his firm was being owed $68 million, not $418 million.
He said the original claims calculated based on agreed terms were more than $300m, but his firm “offered a huge discount on the entitlement to accept the $68m”.
He added that the money owed to the consultants was $68 million and not $418m that had been in public space.
Saying that some ‘miscalculation’ could have been involved, the former legislator said his firm had nothing to do with $418 million.
According to him, AGF Malami “was only trying to ensure that the law was obeyed”.
•Governors’ response
The umbrella association of governors in the country fired back at Nwoko, saying, ‘You dished out half-truth’.
They said the comments made by Ned Nwoko, a lawyer and business mogul, regarding the Paris Club refund were “blatant lies and half-truths”.
There had been controversy over consultancy fees amounting to $418m from the Paris Club refund.
The NGF, in a statement signed by the forum’s Head of Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, said Nwoko did not tell journalists the truth.
“The facts are and will always remain: whether the claims of the consultants are lawful and justified under our constitution and whether any judgment which is a subject of a pending appeal can be enforced or executed as the consultants now attempt to do?” the statement reads.
It added, “If both questions are answered in the negative, it does not matter if the contracts leading to the claims were entered into by any public official, past or present.
“No person or persons can agree to blatantly circumvent our constitution and get away with it. Neither is the period when judgments were obtained of consequence in this case.”
The governors’ forum added that Nwoko “only singled out and justified his fee, which is part of the controversial $418m.
“While he strenuously tried to single out and justify his bogus claim of $68 million; the total amount which all the consultants, working in concert, collectively seek and claim from the states and LGAs, albeit unlawfully, is $418,953,690.59.
“Broken down as follows: Ned Munir Nwoko $68,658,192.83; Ted Isighohi Edwards $159,000,000; and Panic Alert Security System Ltd $47,831,920.
“Others are Riok Nig, Ltd $142,028,941.95, Prince Orji Orizu $1,219,440.45; and barrister Olaitan Bello $215,195.36, which makes the total of $418,953,690.59.
According to the state’s chief executives, “The attempt by Ned, therefore, to separate his claim of $68m, as if it is not related to the claims of other consultants is being clever by half.
“All the consultants claim to have rendered the same or similar service of helping the states and LGs to recover over-deducted Paris Club refunds by the Federal Government performing some contracts to be paid from the Paris Club refunds.
“It is, therefore, needless joining issues with Ned Nwoko or indeed any of the consultants. It is, however, imperative to debunk patent lies dished out to disabuse the minds of the undiscerning public.
“In his desperation to justify his claim, Ned peddled untruths that his team was a member of the federal government committee constituted to reconcile figures under the Paris Club refunds to the states and local governments. That is patently false. The report of that committee dated May 2007 shows that only the FMF, OAGF, CBN, DMO, and RMFC (secretariat) were members.”
In 2021, the governors obtained an order from a Federal High Court in Abuja restraining the Federal Government from deducting the money from states’ accounts to pay the disputed debt.
The forum had also accused Malami of bias in handling the controversial debt, questioning his role in the process.
•Malami’s position
The justice minister maintains that on the issue of $418m Paris Club refund deductions, the governors have no basis to complain.
At the ministerial media briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday, the AGF reminded the state chief executives that they created the liability whose payment they have also indemnified.
Malami affirmed that the NGF had made a request for the refund, and one of the components was the settlement of the consultants who were engaged by the forum.
He recalled that when the refund was paid to the states, part payment was also made to the consultants.
However, he said the governors later decided to stop payment while asking for an out-of-court settlement.
The minister said this resulted in a request to the president to make the payment, a request he said was then passed on to the Office of the AGF for a legal opinion.
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Malami noted after being subjected to necessary checks, it was found out that there was no element of fraud involved.
According to him, the indemnity of the governors was also sought and received.
“That was we agreed that the payment should be made,” the AGF stated.
•Consultant petitions IGP over $119.4m Paris Club refund, indicts Umahi
Meanwhile, the reverberating effect of the funds is also being felt in Ebonyi State, where a consultant has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) in Abuja over a $119.4m Paris Club refund.
The consultant is alleging that the Ebonyi State governor had been indicted over the refund.
But an aide of the governor yesterday made spirited efforts to absolve his principal in any shady deal over the matter, saying Umahi played no role in the refund.
A financial consultant, Dr Maurice Ibe, petitioned IGP Alkali Baba, alleging that Governor Umahi was threatening his life.
Ibe’s allegation was contained in the petition written on his behalf by a firm of legal practitioners, Charles Ude and Co, solicitors, and made available to journalists in Abuja yesterday.
Charles Ude, who signed the petition, alleged that the governor was threatening his life because of the $119,419,427.59 Paris Club refund, which his firm and others recovered for the state, but were not paid their commission.
In the petition with (Ref: CU/01/EB/2022), addressed to the IGP, the petitioner urged the police authorities to forestall the “Illegal and Unlawful Attempt to Abduct, Kidnap and Harass Dr. Maurice Ibe by Dave Umahi, Executive Governor of Ebonyi State”.
The lawyer urged the IGP to “proactively take steps to halt the move by the governor and the select police officers he has engaged for the nefarious activity against Dr. Ibe.”
But, the governor, through his Special Assistant on Media, Chooks Okoh, dismissed Ibe’s claims while reacting to the development in a telephone interview with our correspondent.
He described the financial consultant as an impostor who is not known to the Ebonyi State government.
He said, “We do not know who Maurice Ibe is. He claimed to have helped the Ebonyi State Government recover money from the Paris Club, but it is in the public domain that there was a consultant that recovered the fund for all the governors, and the arrangement was coordinated by Nigeria’s Governors Forum.
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“On what basis will somebody now be asking the Ebonyi State Government for money for something that was done by another person on behalf of all the governors in Nigeria?
“It is good that he has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police. Let the IGP investigate thoroughly and indict whoever is culpable.”
Ude had insisted in the petition that his client, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Mauritz Walton Nigeria Limited, Abuja, had noticed clandestine moves by some policemen around his home and office premises in unmarked vehicles.
He claimed that he had reasons to suspect that the men were acting on the instruction of Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State.
He, therefore, said there was a need for the IGP to protect him from being attacked or abducted by the policemen allegedly sent after him by the governor.
