Governors of the 36 states of the Federation have picked holes in the arguments adduced by Ned Nwoko to justify the payment of consultants engaged as a result of Paris Club loans.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Director, Media and Public Affairs, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Secretariat, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, accused Nwoko of attempting to blur the real facts and legal issues in controversy by dishing out blatant lies and half-truths.
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Nwoko had on Saturday accused the current Chairman of the NGF and Governor of Ekiti state, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, of telling lies over the payment of their entitlements, also claiming that governors took $100m for Osun and Ekiti elections.
Before Nwoko’s outburst, the NGF had described the position of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on the controversial ‘$418 million Paris Club contractors’ fee as “fraudulent and self-serving” with a resolve to pursue the issue before the law court to a logical conclusion so as to know the next steps to take on the matter.
Malami had on Thursday August 11 said the state governors had no justification to protest against deductions from the Paris Club refund paid to the consultants they hired as they created the liability whose payment they had also indemnified.
Bello-Barkindo, while reacting, urged Nwoko and the other consultants to end the media war and direct all energies towards defending
the appeals.
He said the NGF and its leadership remained focused and determined to diligently pursue all appeals on the Judgments on the Paris Club refunds.
“All that it requests of the AGF and the consultants is to allow the appeal processes to run and be exhausted. It may be that the consultants will successfully defend the appeals after which they will be paid.
“However, if they lose as RIOK NIGERIA LTD has lost; which is the most likely verdict that shall befall all the other consultants; let the public funds in issue remain protected,” he said.
The statement further read: “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 USD418.9m from the public treasury of the States and Local Governments continued on Saturday 20th August 2022.
“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…. While Mr. Ned Nwoko strenuously tried to single out and justify his own bogus claim of USD$68 million; the total amount which all the consultants working in concert, collectively seek and claim from the States and Local Governments, albeit unlawfully is USD$418,953,690.59 no matter how long it takes….
“The use of libelous language on the person of the Chairman of NGF, who has refused to be compromised and has firmly stood his ground on the unconstitutional and unlawful nature of the consultants’ claims, is not helpful
to their case either. The NGF hereby states unequivocally that it has not at any time been involved in or been in receipt of USD$100m or any other funds from NED Nwoko to finance elections in any State.”
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