The last is yet to be heard about the ongoing controversy trailing the $418.954 million Paris Club refund as the 36 state governors under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) on Sunday unveiled the identities of the six consultants requesting for the payment.
According to the Forum, the breakdown of the $418,953,690.59 showed that: Ned Munir Nwoko demanded for $68,658,192.83; Dr Ted Isighohi Edwards – $159,000,000; Panic Alert Security Systems Limited – $47,831,920; Riok Nigerian Limited – $142,028,941.95; Prince Orji Orizu – $1,219,440.45; and Olaitan Bello demanded for $215,195.36.
The governors’ position was conveyed in a three-page statement entitled: ‘NGF’s response to Ned Munir Nwoko’s press statement dated August 20, 2022’, issued by NGF’s Director of Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, who dismissed allegation that the forum demanded for $100 million to finance elections.
While frowning on the role allegedly played by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, to ensure the payment of the $418 million to the consultants, the NGF’s spokesman, argued that the antics being adopted by the consultants was because it is obvious as the consultants are not in a position to restore the funds paid to them back to the states if they lose on appeal.
He said, “Not surprisingly, the desperate, spurious and futile advocacy mounted and coordinated by the AGF on behalf of the so-called Paris Club consultants to justify the plundering of the humongous sum of $418.9 million from the public treasury of the states and local governments continued on Saturday, August 20, 2022, when Ned Nwoko, in a press statement, attempted to blur and obfuscate the real facts and legal issues in controversy by dishing out blatant lies and half-truths.
“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 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.
“Undoubtedly, the salient facts on the fraud associated with the Paris Club refunds can never be changed by a thousand press statements by the AGF or any of the consultants. As the judgments of the appellate courts, particularly that of the Supreme Court, have begun to expose the creepiness and unlawful nature of the consultants claims, it is not surprising that they are now afflicted by dizzy spells, seriously discomforted and are now driven by desperation to ensure that the plundering and fleecing of the state is quickly completed before the determination of the pending proceedings in the appellate and other courts in order to foist a situation of frustration and helplessness on the states.