Hon. Ned Nwoko
By Victory Oghene
Former House of Representatives member and Executive Chairman of Linas International, Hon. Ned Nwoko has replied the Nigeria Governors`Forum (NGF) over th controversy generated by the the $68million Paris Club Refund, he stated in a press stament made available to NATIONAL WAVES that the reponse of the Governors smacks of half truth and added that that he stands by his claims
The statements reads`My attention has been drawn to a misleading, baseless and ludicrous reply by the Nigerian Governors’ Forum NGF to a press conference I addressed on Saturday 20th August 2022, at Abuja where I laid bare the facts over the issue of the Paris Club refund, which has been subjected to lingering intrigues and misappropriation by the leadership of NGF`.
`In a statement signed by one “Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, Director, Media and Public Affairs, Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat” released on Sunday 21st August 2022, the NGF made hurried and futile attempts to cover up the germane, glaring and incontrovertible truths contained in my widely publicized press conference, detailing straight and factual sequences of my legitimate transactions and interventions as a consultant on the now famous Paris Club refunds`.
Hon. Nwoko submitted that the NGF did not have the moral right to talk about constitutional issues after collecting $86.5mUSD, N19b, and $100mUSD approved for someone else.
`The NGF is talking about constitutional issues after collecting $86.5mUSD, N19b, and $100mUSD approved for someone else. We have not forgotten how the EFCC recovered some of the funds it funneled to some leaders of the 8th National Assembly to secure their cooperation in the fraudulent scheme. No court of justice will allow a party approbate and reprobate on the same issue. NGF lacks the legal and moral basis to raise such issue after exploiting others and enjoying the benefits. Constitutional compliance are not empty or hollow phrases. It encompasses reason, morality and duty to obey laws` said Hon. Nwoko.
He continued. `The NGF response is not surprising. It affirms what we have been saying and experienced which is that they are striving to contrive legal issues and spurious litigations in a bid to avoid responsibilities which the high court condemned. They are hoping to take undue advantage of the slow pace of judicial process in Nigeria to frustrate by touting an appeal which is unconnected with the subject`.
`The elementary principle of law is that an appeal does not serve as a stay of enforcement of a court judgment. The Court of Appeal Act is very explicit on that. If Mr. Barkindo consulted their legal department, he would have been appropriately guided and avoided exposing his ignorance. He can however, make a quick reference to the case of ZENITH INT’L BANK LTD V. ALOBU (2017) 4 NWLR (Pt. 1554) 135 where the Court of Appeal stated that it is also elementary that a court judgment must be respected until set aside or suspended. Judgments of court against the NGF and Attorney Generals of the 36 state governments have not been suspended. The Attorney General as the chief law officer of the federation is being vilified by the NGF for not standing the law on its head to foster their scheme`.
`The NGF seeks refuge under a case in which their lead counsel, a senior advocate, has stated in open court that they are not challenging the payment of Hon. Ned Munir Nwoko by Promissory Notes but the mechanism the Federal Government seeks to reimburse the face value of the Promissory Notes. The learned senior lawyer duly understands that payment by Promissory Notes is an alternative to enforcement of a court judgment by cash payment. And once a execution of a judgment is completed you cannot order a stay of execution`.
`Let NGF tell the world if there is an order of court staying the enforcement of the judgments on the basis of which the payments were made or whether an order for stay has been granted in the shadow-chasing and frivolous suit it lost at the high court. What the NGF is doing is the typical bull-in-a-china-shop behavior. Destroy what you can’t have. The loan-to-value of a Promissory Note is impacted by the commercial and public trust it commands. Having been paid the NGF is out to ensure that the beneficiaries gain minimal value from discounting the Promissory Notes`.
`Let me emphasize and reiterate in clear terms as I had stated earlier, that contrary to the false narratives of the Chairman of NGF, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the consultancy fees were legitimately earned and owed for services rendered and which the states and local governments respectively have fully been refunded.For the avoidance of doubt, the fees owed my firm, pertaining to the work handled for the state governments ALONE is approximately $68million dollars and not $418million dollars as is mischievously being portrayed by the leadership of NGF under Fayemi and his team`
`The NGF, in the statement wondered why I chose to “fully enforce the Judgment in FHC/ABJ/CS/130/2013“ insisting in a most insincere and ridiculous goof that “it does not matter if the contracts leading to the claims were entered into by any public officer, past or present”. This is absurd, selfish and unimaginable postulation, given the fact that the current NGF has benefited from the Paris Club Refunds with several tranches of the proceeds paid to the states, since the financial arrangement began under the Obasanjo administration`.
`The leadership of the forum is obviously rattled, astounded and stupefied that I raised the issue of the ambush of the Federal Ministry of Justice, intimidation, diversion and misappropriation of USD$100m.
For emphasis, the Federal Government having fully refunded to local governments on the basis of the court judgment Linas International Limited and local governments jointly secured against it in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/130/2013, the President intervened on behalf of the local governments and offered to pay me approximately 55% ($350) of the total judgment sum of $637mUSD which he approved for the consultancy fees (for work done by Linas International Limited for local governments’ refunds which had been fully disbursed by the FGN). This sum was warehoused at the Central Bank of Nigeria in the account of the Federal Ministry of Justice As I explained before, the then NGF chairman, Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar of Zamfara State, insisted that half of that money must be paid to NGF or he would generate a crisis and ensure that the payment is frustrated for work done over several years to the benefit of local governments. The Ministry firmly supported my resistance to the attempt to intimidate and blackmail me into submission. The Ministry intervened and proposed the following`
`That they can only release any portion of the money to the NGF on the condition that Governor Yari must provide an indemnity in favor of the federal government
It beggars belief that, Governor Yari tore the draft indemnity the Ministry prepared and provided his own indemnity which incidentally Governor Fayemi, defiantly, now claims is not binding on NGF.
That where the NGF insists on cornering any portion of the discounted $350mUSD approved by the President the Ministry will return my letter in which I had signed earlier for the receipt of the discounted $350mUSD in full and final payment.
That Governor Yari would rather have me claim the balance of the full consultancy fee later in order to grab the cash at hand of $100mUSD out of the discounted $350mUSD approved by the President.
The Ministry returned the letter to me releasing me from the commitment of accepting the discounted $350mUS as full and final payment to enable me claim the balance outstanding on the consultancy fee for refunds to local governments in favour of Linas International Limited`.
`The Ministry’s instruction to CBN clearly stated that $100m be paid to NGF. It must be noted that this particular payment had to do with the local governments and yet NGF insisted it must have part of it. This $100m should be differentiated from the two earlier payments of $86mUSD and N19 billion legal/consultancy fees (for work done for states) diverted to NGF which became the subject matter of EFCC investigations and arrests of some staff of the NGF. Again, why should NGF receive my fees for work done for states. On whose authority were the fees sent to NGF and for what purpose?
`The NGF brushed aside the several questions begging for answers. The NGF should address the issues of fraudulent payments made to them.
Did NGF receive the $86mUSD and N19 billion or not?
Did NGF sign Terms of Settlement with Hon. Ned Munir Nwoko?
Was there a Consent Judgement in my favour against them?
Has the NGF made two installments of payments on the basis of the Consent Judgment to Hon. Ned Munir Nwoko leading to the balance of $68mUSD?
Did the NGF collect 5% payment as Administrative fees from Hon. Ned Munir Nwoko on each occasion it made the instalment of payment?
In the two payments to Hon. Ned Munir Nwoko did the NGF pay me as a group along with these others it now seeks to lump together in the claim of $418mUSD? Did the states and local governments receive their full refunds?
Is there any Promissory Notes for Linas International Limited and in their list of consultants that make up the touted $418mUSD?
Why is Linas International Limited not mentioned in their hurried response?`
`The questions are many but let the NGF respond to these few for now.
It is so obvious that they have no defence to the issues raised in my press conference. That is why they are trying to muddle things up by chasing shadows and leaving substance. Rather than face the cogent revelations and speak directly to debunk my pointed unambiguous assertions, which are not just weighty but valid and verifiable, they resorted to trumped up and manufactured lies, sold cheaply in feeble and evasive propaganda.
In the statement, NGF leadership went so awkward and condescending to ridicule itself with the fake unguarded spin that “Ned Nwoko said nothing about his current status with the UK Law Society and the widely held belief that he was disbarred for fraudulent activities” .
`It is common knowledge that I attended universities of Keele and Kings College, University of London, two world renowned institutions where I obtained my first degree and masters. After my call to the English Bar, as member of the Lincoln’s Inn, I requalified as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. I had the rare fortune of establishing and growing one of the most successful law firms in Great Britain in the 1990s. By dint of due diligence and divine grace, I was adjudged by credible legal authorities in London as the best black Lawyer of African descent resident in UK.
I came back to Nigeria in I999 to embrace an equally enchanting destiny, heading to the House of Representatives, Abuja to represent my people – Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency, as our nation returned to multi-party democracy. That was from 1999- 2003, a momentous era, I dare say in the quest for effective law-making and good governance for the betterment of my people`
`With a heritage of outstanding legal sojourn in Britain, the consummation of my law discipline is unassailable. Till date I am proudly and happily in touch with my legal roots in Britain I have my annual practicing certificates as a British lawyer. They don’t issue practicing certificates to anyone debarred from practice. I have NEVER been barred from legal practice in UK.
I hereby openly challenge Fayemi and co to prove the allegations. I am prepared to sue if he fails to stand to my challenge. It is devious, wicked and libelous for anyone to cast spurious slur on my eventful legal career, which is phenomenal by every standard`
`In an unrestrained plot to remain dubious, opaque and diversionary in the face of the plain circumstances of the Paris Club Refund, the NGF statement also recklessly attacked the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minster of Justice AGF , Abubakar Malami, ruefully noting that “the AGF has addressed and issued over half a dozen press statements justifying why the consultants should be immediately paid” According to the statement, Malami has “become the strongest advocate to the consultants”, because I praised the role played by the AGF as inevitable. Malami’s presence in this transaction is indeed inevitable, after all, he is the chief law officer of the Federation who, based on a proposition by the Federal Ministry of Finance, was directed by the President to secure and ensure that a discount was enforced with respect to the consultancy fee now in controversy`
`The NGF stated further in its deceptive and illogical assumptions that my resolve to pursue the payment to my firm “without reference to others” suggest that the union of consultants is gradually falling apart”. This is simply a lie. The hard facts bear restating that LINAS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED and NED NWOKO SOLICITORS were not engaged through a group transaction with any other consultant/s, just as the services and the eventual legal battles handled were solo and specific to my firm, as evidenced in the successful Linas suit no FCH/ABJ/CS 130/2013 and Ned Nwoko solicitors suit no FHC/ABJ/CS/512/2014.
The consequence is that as at 2013 -2014, no other consultant or firm took the federal government to court on behalf of the states and the local governments. The issue of “union of consultants” is therefore unwarranted and totally out of the question, the purport, obviously skewed to gratify the mischief or ignorance of the NGF leadership`
`A simple contract which they have fully benefited from full refunds of $13b is now subject of constitutional interpretation for my fees. This is the best example of abuse of court process and abuse of the power and privileges of office. This is why they have lost at every stage of their wild goose chase in the courts. They are only trying to frustrate and delay my payments having received full benefits from my work. This is the consistent wicked tactics`
`Yet again, I challenge the NGF to show proof of one instance (JUST ONE) where Linas International Limited or Hon. Ned Munir Nwoko engaged with it as a joint/group with any other entity either in the execution of the two separate consultancies or in demand for payments. The NGF strained so hard to lump me with the others in order to foster the scheme to avoid responsibilities.
Let me assert with all sense of responsibility and tenacity of conviction that I stand by every content and context of my Press statement of 20th Saturday 2022. No amount of blackmail and falsehood will distract me from following the path of truth, law and justice towards getting my legitimate entitlements as regards the Paris Club Refunds. I will never succumb to any intimidation, threats or trickery no matter the depth of such subterfuge. There is no skeleton whatsoever in my cupboard and I have nothing to fret or fear, as regards the Paris Club transaction.
Having rendered a patriotic and noble service to my fatherland, I deserve the full recompense on my honour` Hon. Ned Nwoko siad in the statement.
