Paris Club: Lawyer, govs settle over N22bn payment

An Abuja Federal High Court has approved the settlement between former member of the House of Representatives, Ned Nwoko and state governors over N22 billion fee for the recovery of N522.74 billion foreign loans deductions.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole was on Tuesday informed by lawyers that parties reached agreement to pay the lawyer consultancy fee of N1billion and other sum to be agreed upon.

In a writ of summons filed against the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) and seven others, Nwoko sought an order of court directing the forum to pay his consultancy/ legal fees from the N413.6 billion already released by the Federal Government, as agreed in his engagement letter to recover the accruals from the funds, wrongly deducted by the Paris Club and London Club between 1995 and 2005.

In the suit by his lawyers, J.K. Gadzama (SAN) and K.C.O Njemanze (SAN), Nwoko also asked the court to direct the Minister of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pay directly into his account any sum to be released on the refund of the excess deductions without passing thought the NGF.

The lawyer had joined as defendants in the suit: the Accountant General of the Federation, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC); Access Bank PLC and Guaranteed Bank PLC, claims that the NGF has hired another consultant to illegally copy his work.

States listed as the refund beneficiaries include: Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Bayelsa, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Kogi, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Taraba and Zamfara.