The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) says comments made by a lawyer and business magnate, Ned Nwoko, regarding the Paris Club refund were blatant lies and half-truths.
Recall that there has been controversy over consultancy fees amounting to $418 million from the Paris Club refund. Nwoko, on Saturday, alleged that the consultancy fee owed by the States and local governments was $68 million and not $418 million as claimed by NGF. He said the original claims calculated based on agreed terms were in excess of $300 million, but his firm offered a huge discount on the entitlement to accept the $68 million.
However, the NGF, in an issued press statement signed by the Forums Head of Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, said Nwoko told blatant lies and half-truths while speaking to newsmen.
The statement read in part: 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.
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 NGF further said Nwoko, in trying to justify his bogus claim, only singled out and justified his own fee, which is part of the controversial $418 million, which is the total amount that all the consultants, working in concert, collectively seek and claim from the States and LGAs.
The amount is 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.
The attempt by Ned, therefore, to separate his own claim of $68 million as if it is not related to the claims of other consultants is being clever by half. 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 in order to disabuse the minds of the undiscerning public, it stated.
Recall that 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 for the purpose of paying the disputed debt.
The Forum had also accused the Attorney-General of the Federation, (AGF), Abubakar Malami, of bias in handling the controversial debt, questioning his role in the process.
