Paris Club refund: Ned Nwoko demands $40m compensation from NGF over ‘libellous publication’

Ned Nwoko, former lawmaker and businessman, has asked the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) to pay him $40 million as compensation for allegedly defaming his character.

There has been controversy over consultancy fees amounting to $418 million from the Paris Club refund.

Nwoko, who was one of the consultants, on Saturday, alleged that the consultancy fee owed by the states and local governments was $68 million and not $418 million as claimed by NGF.

He said the original claims calculated based on agreed terms was in excess of $300 million, but his firm “offered a huge discount on the entitlement to accept the $68 million”.

However, NGF, in a statement signed by Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, the forum’s head of media and public affairs, said Nwoko told blatant lies and half truth while speaking to journalists.

In a letter addressed to the NGF, Nwoko accused the NGF of lying about his status with the UK Law Society.

He complained of a statement by Bello-Barkindo, wherein, he said, “It is curious that in the introduction of himself, Mr 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.”

Nwoko through his lawyers said: “The above quoted statement is profoundly malicious and false as our client has never been disbarred from legal practice in the United Kingdom.”

The lawyers to Ned Nwoko further said that the above quoted statement had lowered him before his business partners, friends,  members of his constituency and well-wishers.

He accused the forum of being on a quest to damage his reputation, cast him as a devious, manipulative, dishonest and fraudulent person of questionable character and attempted to abuse the minds of the public by its refusal to pay the consultancy fees.

Attached to the letter were Nwoko’s practising certificates for the years 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 issued by the Solicitors Regulation Authority – the regulator of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales.

“…Till date, our client is proudly and happily in touch with his legal roots in Britain. He has his annual practising certificates as a British lawyer. They don’t issue practising certificates to anyone debarred from practice,” the suit read.

Consequently, he asked the NGF to “publish in two national newspapers as well as in your online news media — statements retracting the libellous publications of 21st August 2022 with an unqualified apology within 48 hours from the receipt of the letter.”

“Pay the sum of $40,000,000 (forty million United States dollars) as compensation for the malicious, false and disparaging publications.

“This letter should also be taken as a pre-action notice to you peradventure you choose not to heed to our client’s demands.”