CSOs overthrow government over Paris Club reimbursement
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On Thursday, a coalition of human rights organizations called insincere the refusal of 36 state governors to pay consultants involved in $13 billion Paris Club reimbursements .
According to them, the refusal of the Nigerian Governors Forum to pay the consultants who helped turn around the fund was an injustice that Nigerians should reject.
CSOs said that "deliberate efforts are being made by some interested parties to obfuscate the facts in order to direct the narratives according to their nefarious goals and interests".
The PUNCH reported that the $418 million Paris Club debt repayment charge was the subject of controversy between NGF and the Federation Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, in recent weeks.
While the AGF said governors had no justification for rejecting proposed deductions from a Paris Club reimbursement advisory fee, NGF insisted that deductions for commission payment were illegal.
Governors said Malami's stance on the issue was "fraudulent and self-serving".
Coalition Leader and National Co-Spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties and Civil Society Organizations, Mark Adebayo, told reporters that Nigerians had been misled by deliberate propaganda and misinformation on the subject for so long that this cannot continue.
He said the AGF acted in good faith given the realities of the case and the decisions and orders of the courts with jurisdiction in the matter.
Adebayo said, "It is instructive to reveal that the same NGF complaining about the payment of consultancy fees collected funds intended for the payment of consultancy services. We found out that they have raised $86.4 million and N19 billion at different times.
"They also collected $100 million. We found that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission investigated some of them and made confiscations.
“Secondly, about Linas International and Ned Nwoko Solicitors, the only Paris/London Club reimbursement consultants, who were mostly in the eye of the storm, the sum of 418 million of dollars being associated with Nwoko was never the subject of a claim by him, as we have now discovered.
"His demand has always been payment of the outstanding amount payable to him on work done for the States and LGAs out of the funds recovered, being the consultancy agreement formally entered into with the governments of the States to recover the overpayments of their allocations to them by the federal government for several years. “
Please share this story:
On Thursday, a coalition of human rights organizations called insincere the refusal of 36 state governors to pay consultants involved in $13 billion Paris Club reimbursements .
According to them, the refusal of the Nigerian Governors Forum to pay the consultants who helped turn around the fund was an injustice that Nigerians should reject.
CSOs said that "deliberate efforts are being made by some interested parties to obfuscate the facts in order to direct the narratives according to their nefarious goals and interests".
The PUNCH reported that the $418 million Paris Club debt repayment charge was the subject of controversy between NGF and the Federation Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, in recent weeks.
While the AGF said governors had no justification for rejecting proposed deductions from a Paris Club reimbursement advisory fee, NGF insisted that deductions for commission payment were illegal.
Governors said Malami's stance on the issue was "fraudulent and self-serving".
Coalition Leader and National Co-Spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties and Civil Society Organizations, Mark Adebayo, told reporters that Nigerians had been misled by deliberate propaganda and misinformation on the subject for so long that this cannot continue.
He said the AGF acted in good faith given the realities of the case and the decisions and orders of the courts with jurisdiction in the matter.
Adebayo said, "It is instructive to reveal that the same NGF complaining about the payment of consultancy fees collected funds intended for the payment of consultancy services. We found out that they have raised $86.4 million and N19 billion at different times.
"They also collected $100 million. We found that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission investigated some of them and made confiscations.
“Secondly, about Linas International and Ned Nwoko Solicitors, the only Paris/London Club reimbursement consultants, who were mostly in the eye of the storm, the sum of 418 million of dollars being associated with Nwoko was never the subject of a claim by him, as we have now discovered.
"His demand has always been payment of the outstanding amount payable to him on work done for the States and LGAs out of the funds recovered, being the consultancy agreement formally entered into with the governments of the States to recover the overpayments of their allocations to them by the federal government for several years. “
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