Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has charged Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and all consultants in the $418.9 million Paris Club loan refund to refrain from media propaganda and await an appeal court verdict on the matter.
In a statement, yesterday, the spokesman of the forum, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, said the NGF and its leadership remain focused and determined to diligently pursue all appeals on the Paris Club refunds.
“All that it requests of the AGF and the consultants is to allow the appeal processes to run and be exhausted. It may be that the consultants will successfully defend the appeals after which they will be paid.
“However, if they lose, as Riok Nigeria Ltd has lost, which is the most likely verdict that shall befall all the other consultants, let the public funds in issue remain protected,” the forum said.
It urged Ned Nwoko and the other consultants to end the media war and direct all energies toward defending the appeals.
NGF also accused Nwoko of acting in synergy with the Attorney General to justify “plundering of the humongous sum of $418.9 million from the public treasury of the states and local councils.”
It added: “The facts are, and will always remain, whether the claims of the consultants are lawful and justified under our Constitution and whether any judgment, which is a subject of pending appeal can be enforced or executed as the consultants now attempt to do?
“If both questions are answered in the negative, it does not matter if the contracts leading to the claims were entered into by any public official, past or present.
“No person or persons can agree to blatantly circumvent our Constitution and get away with it. Neither is the period when judgments were obtained of consequence in this case.”