Paris Club refund paid to state govts NOT Saraki, seven ex-govs

Reports of Senate President Bukola Saraki’s alleged complicity in the pilfering of parts of the Paris Club loan refund rippled with a strong current on Monday.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had leaked a report vicariously indicting him of money laundering.

According to the report, Saraki’s aides and Robert Mbonu, his associate, diverted N3.5bn of the funds.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) reportedly hired Mbonu as one of its consultants in the “refund” transaction.

The N3.5bn was allegedly part of the N522bn loan refund disbursed to all the states of the federation in December, 2016. The refund was a result of over-deductions from the statutory allocations of the states for debt servicing from 1995 to 2002.

The senate president has since denied his involvement in the transaction, accusing Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the EFCC of waging a war against him because of the senate’s refusal to confirm his appointment.

But was he really involved in the deal?

Although, Saraki was Kwara governor in 2005 when the processing of the refund commenced, the state did not get its share of N9.1bn until December 2016 – years after he had left office.

On March 17, the Kwara state government said that Saraki did not in any way benefit from the loan refund.

In a statement, Muideen Akorede, senior special assistant on media to Abdulfatah Ahmed, governor of Kwara, said the money was fully utilised for infrastructural projects.

“The Kwara state government wishes to reaffirm that its share of the Paris-London Club refund from the federal government was fully utilised for infrastructure projects, MSME support and infrastructure projects as well as payment of salaries and pensions at state and local government levels,” he said.

“The public is therefore advised to disregard spurious and completely unsubstantiated claims made by a guest on a national television program on Thursday or similar assertions on any other platform to the effect that part of the state’s share of the refund was paid to a former governor of the state and current senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki or to any other party.

“It is not the state government’s practice to make payments to individuals or organisations without appropriation.”

Again, the NGF said emphatically that the funds did not go into any personal account.

Although, it admitted that some consultants were hired to facilitate the process, it maintained that there were no underhand dealings.

“The Paris London Clubs loan refund has been on the cards since 2005. Successive state governors had tried to get reimbursement for the excess deductions from their states in the past but did not succeed. The failure resulted from a number of reasons, varying from one state to the other. It is therefore to the Nigeria Governors’ Forum’s credit that this set of governors was able to persuade President Muhammadu Buhari to authorise the release of the funds for disbursement to deserving states,” it said in a statement issued by Abdulrazque Barkindo, its spokesman.

“President Buhari’s desire to reflate the economy at a time when states were insolvent and unable to pay salaries was why he acceded to the request by the current group of governors that the money be released to the states. It is true that there were conditions attached to the disbursements but these arose from the collective and voluntary resolution of the governors and not any draconian order from any quarters. It shows that the governors themselves are responsible, sensitive and compassionate enough to understand the plight of Nigerians that they govern and therefore work in the interest of their people.

“It is important to state that in approving the repayment, due process was diligently followed and each and every approving authority, including the federal ministry of finance, the office of the accountant general of the federation, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the office of the auditor-general of the federation as well as the national assembly were duly informed from the beginning to the end of all the transactions. Nothing illegal was done and no monies were paid into the personal account of any governor, legislator or top officials at any of the levels and arms of government in the country.

“This brings us to the issue of consultants who facilitated the process. Indeed, a number of consultants were saddled with the task of verifying the amounts due to each of the states. These consultants were recruited by the respective states but were eventually collapsed into a consortium of only a few, even though the others who did not make it to the final group were reimbursed according to their input.

“It may interest the readers that many more consultants throughout the country are still insisting that they did work on this same Paris-London Clubs repayments since a decade ago and that they are entitled to some compensation as well.

“Many of them had actually and verifiably done some work in the past and negotiated a fee of between 10 per cent and 30 per cent, with the different states that engaged them. It was therefore immoral and impossible to deny each their due, provided their input is verified and justified.

“It should be noted that if the federal government under the watch of President Buhari had found anything corrupt, illegal and unpatriotic about the payment or the utilisation of the first tranche of the Paris-London Clubs fund repayment to states, it would not have approved the payment of the second tranche to the states. After all, we all know the unimpeachable level of commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari on the issues of transparency and accountability. In any case, those writing those fictitious reports on the payment have also acknowledged that the president had insisted on the verification of the process of utilization of the first tranche before the second is approved for release. Note also most importantly at this juncture that every decision that was taken in respect of all the transactions was with the full consent and blessing of the 36 governors.

“We therefore find the insinuation in the media that monies went into the private accounts of seven unidentified governors as not only preposterous but mischievous.”

On March 16, the president directed the ministry of finance and CBN to act with dispatch in releasing the second tranche of the funds.

Would the president have given this order if he was convinced the initial funds went into private pockets?