A security consultant, Mr. George Uboh, who conducted an inquiry into the proceedings leading to a judgment of a Federal High Court in Abuja awarding $3.2bn against the Federal Government, has faulted the excuse of the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), over his failure to defend the suit.

Uboh described Adoke’s failure to defend the suit as untenable given the amount of money involved.

The presiding judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, has fixed the ongoing garnishee proceedings in the suit for Tuesday when the Central Bank of Nigeria is expected to appear in court to show cause why it should not be ordered to pay the money to the plaintiffs who are the judgment creditors.

The plaintiffs, who won the case against the Federal Government, are the 234 local governments of various states of the federation, the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria and their consultant, Linas International Limited.

They had filed their suit through an amended originating summons on June 11, 2013.

They sued the Federal Government, the Attorney-General of the Federation (Adoke), the Minister of Finance (who was then Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala) and the Accountant-General of the Federation as defendants in the suit.

The defendents also failed to appeal the judgment, another development which has been fuelling suspicion about the motive behind the case.

Through the suit, the plaintiffs had asked the court to interpret section 162(1), (3) and (5) of the Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) regarding the use of money in the federation account by the Federal Government for servicing debt without first obtaining the authorisation of the various tiers of government including the local governments.

Specifically, the plaintiffs were dissatisfied with the Federal Government’s use of money in the federation account for servicing debt by way of first line charges between June 1995 and March 2002 without first obtaining the authorisation of the other tiers of government including the local governments.

They were also dissatisfied with the use of the money to buy back the London Club debt in 1992 and 2002 as well for the exit payment from the London Club debt in 2006.

The plaintiffs filed the suit through their lawyer, Joe Agi (SAN).

On December 3, 2013, Justice Adeniyi Ademola delivered judgment in favour of the plaintiffs in the case.

The judgment read in part, “I also hold that pursuant to section 162(1), (3) and (5) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), it was unconstitutional for the defendants without the authorisation of the other tiers of government, including the local government councils and area councils in Nigeria, to utilise monies that form part of the Federation Account for London Club debt buy back in 1992 and 2002; and London Club debt exit payment in 2006 without the consent of the third tier of government.”

After resolving the two issues submitted for determination in favour of the plaintiffs, the judge then granted all the prayers of the plaintiffs including a declaration “that the plaintiffs are entitled to the payment of $3,188,079,505.96 from the defendants.”

The court further held, “The defendants are hereby ordered as follows:

“(a) To pay the sum of $3,188,079,505.96 to the plaintiffs.

“(b) To deduct at source 20 per cent of the judgment sum and pay same to the 1st plaintiff through its solicitors, Joe Agi (SAN), into Skye Bank Plc – Sort Code 076151019 – Account Number 1060003931, being the agreed consultancy fees of the 1st plaintiff for its services to the other plaintiffs.”

When contacted, the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation, Adoke, who was in office throughout the period the suits were filed and judgment delivered, said it was mischievous of the investigator to blame the Ministry of Justice without hearing its side of the story.

Even as the chief law officer of the federation, Adoke said his office was deprived of the relevant documents and facts by the Ministry of Finance to defend the case.

He added that the Ministry of Finance also declined his request to appeal against the judgments.

He said in a text message response to our correspondent’s inquiry, “It was a claim for the deduction of local funds by the Federal Government during the era of President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“Efforts to defend the suit proved abortive as those in the know of what happened could not give documents and facts to defend the matter.

“So it is outright mischief to try to blame the Ministry of Justice for the judgment.

“When the judgment was given, we requested from the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General and the Ministry of Finance if they were appealing or interested in appealing and they said no.

“It is rather unfortunate that the so-called expert would come to a negative conclusion without the benefit of verifying the position of the Ministry of Justice.”

Uboh, who is an Abuja-based security expert and Chief Executive Officer of a private security firm, Panic Alert Security System, following his inquiry wondered why Adoke and Okonjo-Iweala neither defended the suit nor appealed it.

He also wondered why the judge awarded various sums of money to contractors that were not parties to the suit.

Uboh said, “Assuming the contractors are parties to the suit, are they aggrieved? Have they executed this contract and cried to the court to help them recover money that ALGON owes them?

“If contractors are not parties to the suit and are not owed money by ALGON but rather are just holding award letters, since when has the procurement law in Nigeria allowed full payment for contracts that have not been executed?

“Has any Nigerian seen Wells Procurement Services providing healthcare services in any local government area?”

In his reply to Adoke, Uboh insisted the former AGF’s excuse was untenable.

He argued, “Adoke did not need any document to challenge the judge’s ultra vires award of judgment to contractors who were not party to the suit, and certainly did not need any document to challenge the judge’s second judgment awarding extra 20 per cent of $3.2bn and N1m per local government consultancy fees to Linas who was suing alone as the plaintiff without specifying the consultancy work done or for whom it was done.”

While investigating the judgment, Uboh said he stumbled upon the second judgment handed down on the same date, December 3, 2013, by the same court.

In the second suit, Linas International Limited (Ned Nwoko) sued the Attorney-General, Minister of Finance, Accountant-General and ALGON.

It will be recalled that in the first suit, Linas and ALGON were on the same side as co-plaintiffs, whereas in the second suit, Linas was the sole plaintiff while ALGON and others were the co-defendants.

Again, the defendants, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Minister of Finance and the Accountant General, did not defend the suit.

The judge had held in the second suit, “The plaintiff is entitled to be paid consultancy fees of N1,000,000 per Local Government plus 20 per cent of all refunds made or yet to be made to each Local Government in settlement of Paris Club debt, whether the refunds were made to the Local Government or through any of their agents or agencies including the 4th defendant (ALGON).

“That a declaration is made that the 2nd and 3rd defendants (Minister of Finance and the Accountant-General of the Federation) are entitled to deduct at source and pay to the plaintiff through his lawyer all consultancy fees due to the plaintiffs from all Local Governments of Nigeria…on account of the excess crude funds used by the Federal Government in settlement of Paris Club debt.

“That a mandatory order is hereby made on the 2nd and 3rd defendants to deduct at source and pay to the plaintiff through his lawyer Joe Agi (SAN), all consultancy fees.”

Further querying Adoke’s excuse for not defending the suit, Uboh said, “Does Adoke need documents to appeal the judge’s judgment awarding two extra consultancy fees without stating the nature of the new consultancy job done by Linas?

“Because this suit deals only with consultancy fees without stating the nature of the consultancy like the first suit did, why didn’t Adoke cry foul at this juncture?”

Justice Ademola has already granted an order of garnishee nisi, directing the Central Bank of Nigeria – the Federal Government’s banker – to appear in court to show cause why the order should not be made absolute.

To make the order absolute is for the court to order the CBN to pay the money to the judgment creditors, that is, the plaintiffs who won the case against the Federal Government.

With the country already facing credit crunch and considering the magnitude of the fund involved, it may not be too long before the country bleeds to a state of coma if the order of garnishee nisi is made absolute.

Our correspondent learnt that proceedings for the garnishee absolute will come up on Tuesday.

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