The lead consultant to states and local governments on the Paris –London Club refunds, Prince Dr. Ned Munir Nwoko, has berated the leadership of the Nigeria Governor‘s Forum over negative comments and alleged false claims with regards the consultation charges for the Paris –London Club refunds and agreements reached between his company Linas international and the then chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and Governor of Zamfara State Governor Abdulazeez Yari and the entity of the Governors Forum to help the states ease the burden of over deductions suffered by the states.
Hon. Nwoko said he was compelled to embark on a public engagement to debunk the litany of lies, spin, and false narratives that have been dished out to abuse the minds of the undiscerning public by the Chairman of Nigeria Governor Forum (NGF), Governor Kayode Fayemi against the payment of consultancy fees legitimately earned and owed my firm for services rendered and which the states and local governments have fully been refunded.
Hon. Nwoko said the outstanding fees owed his firm with regards to last work done for the states is approximately $68mUSD and not $418mUSD as maliciously sought to be conveyed by Governor Kayode Fayemi and his cohorts.
He confirmed that the original claims calculated based on agreed terms was well in excess of $300mUSD but later offered a huge discount on the entitlement to accept the $68mUSD.
Giving a backgrounder to how it all started Hon. Nwoko said in 2003 a World Bank official on a visit to Nigeria had claimed that Nigeria’s external debt was $35bUSD only for the then Vice-President HE Atiku Abubakar to counter the assertion and stated that Nigeria was owing $25bUSD and not $35bUSD as declared by the World Bank. At this period, he had held discussions with the then governor of Adamawa State who stated that they were overburdened by the weight of debt servicing obligations which were consuming substantial portion of their monthly allocation.
This fact according to Hon. Nwoko was also echoed by then governors of Taraba, Adamawa and Ondo states and were the first two states to engage him before others came on board.
Hon. Nwoko argued that the complexities of the management of the loans and the near absence of proper documentation locally, meant he had to focus first on the old Gongola State comprising of Adamawa and Taraba states and also engaged various experts, chartered accountants, forensic experts, Inquiry agents, lawyers as the initial efforts were focused on individual loans. He said his UK team also involved based on the extensive instructions from the team of commissioners and advisers from old Gongola State thus they were are able to reconstruct the repayment scenarios and came to the inevitable conclusion that these states had over paid their foreign loans and in some cases, there were non-existent foreign loans which they had paid.
Hon. Nwoko said the findings of their report ,triggered series of meetings with the then President Olusegun Obasanjo and some of his economic advisers, leading to their report being presented to the president, which showed that the foreign loans had been fully repaid especially with regards to Adamawa and Taraba States.
The report he said prompted the President Obasanjo setting up a Committee to validate the findings of the report, the committee was comprised of two (2) members each from DMO, Accountant General Office, Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Finance, CBN and members of his team as well as two each from Taraba and Adamawa States. The Committee was chaired by DMO.
The Committee Report further confirmed the preliminary findings that the loans had been repaid and the states are overburdened with excess charges and over deductions.
Hence his recommendations that since the loans were taken under the same circumstances there was the possibility that the others will bear similar experiences thus he reeled out the following recommendations that Nigeria should exit from the foreign loans
- Government should stop further deductions from states monthly allocations and
- That they should start working out the extent of over deductions and commence refunds to the states. Most unsettling was the fact these payments were interest payments as principal debt had been repaid.
This he said was the genesis of what evolved into the refunds of excess-charges and over-deductions by the Federal Government to states for servicing loan obligations of state governments in Nigeria and to the current subject matter.
Hon. Nwoko went on to credit former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the federal government political will to halt the excess charges and over deductions as well as the start of refunding on identified over deductions and excess charges.
Which President Yar' Adua and President Jonathan regime continued as well. The above facts according Hon. Ned Nwoko contradict the lies being fostered by the Nigeria’s Governors Forum currently under governor Kayode Fayemi that there were no refunds before this present government.
The experienced lawmaker expressed displeasure that after the recovering of payments the beneficiaries are reluctant to pay as agreed thus his resort to insisting on having his payments received from source as a first line charge. Noting that after the exit from the Paris Club, states continued to receive their refunds and lamented how at some point the Federal Government (FGN) stopped payment so he began to contemplate going to court especially as it relates to using funds belonging to the three (3) tiers of government in paying for the exit.
Hon. Nwoko said for the local governments it was a lot easier because they did not borrow any money so he instructed his lawyers who commenced an action which culminated in a court judgment in 2013 which gave rise to the refunds to local governments.
He said he was duly engaged directly by local government although facilitated by the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and claimed that he also briefed lawyers on behalf of states after years of negotiations and the Federal government wasn’t not forthcoming with further refunds arising from the first line deductions between 1992 and 2002 as well as from the payment towards the exit of from the foreign loans in 2014.
The Nigeria’s Governors Forum he insisted also requested that his team extend the current matter to cover all the states only for some months later, the state governments in Nigeria began were asking the Federal Government for a bailout to be recouped later by the Federal Government by deductions from their allocations from the Federation Account.
Hon. Nwoko recalled how the then Chairman of the NGF Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar, the then Governor of Zamfara State received him and his lawyers in his village to propose the idea that instead of receiving bailouts which merely postpones the financial burdens on the state governments, it were better that the Federal Government refund the states as indicated in Hon. Ned Nwoko’s reports.
Thus all necessary documents were given Governor Yari with which they were pursuing the court case and attended several meetings with Governor Yari and some others over the matter.
Which was eventually sailed through as the Federal Government bought into the idea and the REFUNDS COMMENCED in 2016. The Federal Government refunded both state government as well as local governments based the efforts of Linas International Limited in Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/130/2013 and Ned Nwoko Solicitors Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/512/2014. He reiterated that no other firm or consultant or company as at 2013-2014 sued the federal government on behalf of states and local governments.
He also insisted that the Federal Government in the refunds paid money to accounts provided by the state governors for receipt of the refunds accruable to the states while the governors also provided accounts to receive the refunds accruable to local governments.
The astute solicitor said the first tranche refunds to states and local governments by the Federal Government wrongly paid the consultancy fees to the NGF. The consultancy fee paid to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) is $86.5mUSD and N19.4 billion. While his team and firm were laboring to secure the refunds for the benefit of state and local governments, he accused Governor Yari Abubakar of developing a parallel scheme to misappropriate the consultancy fees as evident in a recent 2016 NGF letter to the Accountant General of the Federation dated June 22, 2016 claiming to have appointed a consultant.
He said he confronted HE Governor Yari Abubakar about the unconscionable quest to appropriate the $86.5mUSD and N19.4 billion and was told it was not for his personal use but was needed for the purposes of the elections in Bauchi, Ekiti and Ondo elections.
Hon. Nwoko recalled how some the monies found their way to some of the leadership of the National Assembly at that time and how EFCC was able to clamp down and recover some of the money funneled away by the NGF.
He said most those frauds are still subject of Investigation as well as civil and criminal litigations including our action against the NGF and the Federal Government in Suit No, FHC/ABJ/CS/148/2017
The former lawmaker said various state governments issued written instructions to the Federal Ministry of Finance authorizing it to deduct at source and pay to the NGF 5% of the sum due each respective state as legal fees. He revealed that the two sets of letters were issued, the first sets of letters were dated 7th or 8th November 2016 as the case may be and the second batch of letters were variously dated 28th and 29th November 2016. In the second batch of letters the state governments each authorized the Federal Ministry of Finance as follows:
“In the event that it is discovered that the amount paid/disbursed is higher than the amount due, refund/deductions should be made directly from the federation account”.
The copy of the two separate letters issued by the Ekiti State Government illustrates the above facts.
Hon. Nwoko said after several unsuccessful efforts to get NGF Chairman to honour the agreement with them and pay over the consultancy fees they confronted the NGF with a law suit. No. FHC/ABJ/CS/148/2017 at the Federal High Court in which the Attorney General of the Federation, The Federal Ministry of Finance, The Accountant General of the Federation, The Central Bank of Nigeria, The EFCC and the two NGF banks were parties.
The NGF initially filed an Objection to the suit as well as the Attorney General and the other parties. However, the NGF being the principal party resolved to settle the matter with his firm.
Thus terms of Settlement was agreed and signed by both parties himself and HE Governor Abdul-aziz Yari Abubakar, as the then Chairman of the NGF signed for the NGF.
In accordance with the resolution the documents were filed in court. The parties jointly adopted the Terms of Settlement as the CONSENT JUDGMENT in the case. In furtherance of the judgment the NGF have:
- Issued “LETTER NO OBJECTION FOR PAYMENT OF LEGAL/CONSULTANCY FEES TO LINAS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED REGARDING OVERDEDUCTIONS ON PARIS AND LONDON CLUB LOANS ON THE ACCOUNTS OF STATES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS (1995-2002)”, dated 7th July 2017.
Paid two instalments of the judgment sum leaving the balance of $68mUSD (which the subject of the Promissory Notes which the current chairman of the NGF HE Gov. Kayode Fayemi has deliberately mired in needless and avoidable controversy).
Hon. Nwoko said at some point the state government’s set-up a Committee of Governors to act on their behalf to review the issues the various consultants were having with the NGF as his team were invited through the NGF with HE Rotimi Akeredolu SAN; HE Ibrahim Dankwambo; HE Nyesom Wike; HE Mohammed Abubakar; HE Simon Lalong and HE Aminu Tambuwal all in attendance.
He recalled with regret that while his team was still battling to get paid their consultancy fees the EFCC without prior invitation came to his house and arrested him on the allegation that he was paid $1.6bUSD as an investigation into a payment he had not received commenced several files of documents were taken from his office. Only for several months of investigation to reveal that at the said time he had not been paid any money for either of the consultancies.
Hon. Nwoko revealed that the EFCC reports of three (3) separate investigations were available and also expressed shock that during the investigation he was confronted with a complaint from the Hon Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (HAGF).He questioned the inevitable role by federal government functionaries who have regrettably been caught in the middle of the NGF ‘s deliberate spinning to win public opinion against his payments and the ploy to avoid discharging their obligations.
He described the role of the NGF in the process of the federal government refunds as beyond speculation and the disposition of Governor Fayemi as therefore misleading, progressing and degenerating to the point of casting aspersions and personal slur on fellow public officers discharging the responsibilities of their public office.
He further revealed that when Mr. President approved payment of $350mUSD for Linas International Limited in connection with local government in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/130/2013: he was asked to sign a document accepting the approved sum in full and final payment of the judgment sum of $637mUSD.
Hon. Nwoko said Governor Yari insisted that half of that money must go to the NGF though he refused initially but since he had already singed that the payment was in full and final payment.
The embattled solicitor said the Ministry of Justice brokered a solution whereby the document he earlier signed in full and final payment is returned to him and secondly Yari is compelled to sign an indemnity for the sum he is arm-twisting to collect against any claims by him against the FGN and Governor Yari signed.
Hon. Nwoko then reeled off the alleged misleading information and impressions of Governor Kayode Fayemi and the NGF as
- It is false that the NGF did not act or represent the state governors over the current round of refund on the Paris Club.
- It is also false that past regimes refused to pay the consultancy fees. Refunds started under the Obasanjo regime. If the NGF had paid in accordance with agreement this would have been averted.
- The NGF chairman, Governor Fayemi said there was no court Order of mandamus against the Federal Ministry of Finance and Attorney General. By Court Order dated 21st July, 2021 Federal High Court compelled Finance Minister, DMO DG and HAGF to either pay the value or issue Promissory Notes.
- The Governors gave the Federal Government Indemnity.
- The 1st Investigation over this matter was at the instance of the HAGF.
- That the EFCC lacks technical expertise to Investigate this matter.
- Claims that states and local governments have not been fully paid notwithstanding that states have been paid $10billion following from the litigation I commenced In 2014 and LGAs $3.1billion following from the litigation I commenced In 2013.
- There no court judgment in favour of NGF against either Linas International Limited or Ned Nwoko Solicitors. On the contrary we have judgements against them which they are trying to circumvent by all means.
Thus he is shocked that Governor Fayemi now states that such indemnity is not valid and binding on NGF. He vowed to do everything possible to enforce fully the judgment which has partly honoured since Governor Fayemi, like his predecessor he said is 'blackmailing everybody'.
