Further withdrawals from the Paris Club refund by the states government has been stalled as a consultant has dragged the 36 state governors and the Federal Government to court.
A highly placed source at the Presidency, told NAN on Friday night that the consultant in question is suing the state governors for reneging on the payment of the five per cent consultancy fees due to him for services rendered in relation to the sharing of the fund.
According to the source, state governors may not be able to pay their workers from the Paris Club refund before Christmas as they had originally planned.
The source said that the case has been filed at the Federal High Court Abuja.
The source said before this new court case, efforts were in top gear to release the balance of the Paris Club refunds to states to pay workers salaries all over the country before Christmas.
“The payment of the Paris Club refunds is at the final stages. It will be paid to enable the workers enjoy the Christmas and New Year festive seasons,” the source said.
President Muhammadu Buhari last month urged all state governors to utilise the balance of 50 per cent Paris Club refund to settle unpaid salaries owed workers before Christmas.
To remove any hitches, he directed the CBN, Ministry of Finance, and the Budget Office of the Federation to work out how the outstanding fund would be paid before 2017 ends.
The payment began in December 2016 with the release of about N522.74 billion to all 36 states in the first tranche of the Paris Club refund.
The federal government later in July 2017, released N243.8 billion as second tranche.
The funds were released following protests by states against over deductions for external debt service between 1995 and 2002.
