Paris Club refund: Malami backing consultants to fleece Nigerians of their money, says Fayemi

Kayode Fayemi, governor of Ekiti, says Abubakar Malami, the attorney general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, is supporting consultants and private firms to fleece Nigerians of their money.

Speaking to AriseTV on Thursday, Fayemi queried why the AGF is in a hurry to pay the $418 alleged fee to the consultants instead of waiting for the court decision.

“It is befuddling that the attorney general of the federation is pushing vehemently on the side of people whose primary intent is to fleece the Nigerian people,” Fayemi said.

“One of the ways in which the Governors’ Forum at the time tried to address it was to call for all the cases that are in court and all the claims that are been made by consultants and reviewed them.

“This review was carried out. The attorney-general requested for information on this.
“This information was passed to him and at the end of the day, $350 million was approved by Mr. President as full and final settlement and some of these funds went to people who are now back to the attorney-general claiming for ‘$419 million’.

“So if in 2017, a certain amount of money had been approved as full and final payment, where did this $418 million come from?

“I suppose, that is the question that the court needs to help unravel.”

The governor said that the money allegedly owed by the 36 states to these consultants “is not $418m, it is $419m, and that may ring some bells in many places.”

“In 2017, when the president of Nigeria graciously agreed to pay the refund that was inappropriately deducted from the state and local government, many of these people came out of the woodworks and they were blocking the receipt of these funds by states,” he added.

“What is happening now is just a continuation of this sleight of hand and that is what the governors are challenging,”

“I wrote to Mr President on behalf of my colleagues. I sat with Mr. President on this issue, and clearly, Mr President was misled and there is no way governors are going to do this.”

He further said that the claims against the states on the fees were untrue and should be carefully scrutinised.

“We have been very clear that these claims to the best of our knowledge are fraudulent and they should be subjected to a forensic audit if states are found to be liable on account of the purported consultancy allegedly offered and delivered by these people,” he said.