Abubakar Malami, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, has hit back at state governors after they criticized his office over plans to deduct $418 million from their monies to settle a debt owed to consultants by the 36 states and local governments in the country.
Malami wondered why the state governors did not object to the deductions when they commenced in 2016, saying “Now, nothing untoward happened thereafter until perhaps of recent when the NGF wrote, seeking to avoid liability”
The AGF said the implication of the governors planned avoidance of liability in the contract, “taking into consideration that the Federal Government was indeed sued as a party, was that at the end of the day, the liability will be placed exclusively at the doorsteps of the Federal Government when in fact this a liability that was incurred and admitted by the NGF and ALGON.”
He said, “it is indeed amazing that the governors are now belatedly, after having serviced the same claims over a period of five years, turned around to raise objections in respect of the payment even when they had consented on their own to a judgment which was entered in 2013 before this government came in place.
“Two, they had been effecting periodic payments in respect of the same [and] they had provided individual indemnity commitment that these payments should be effected over time.”
Malami said that the responsibility of his office is to “provide the necessary protection to the Federal Government,” stressing “I cannot be sitting here as the Attorney-General and allow the Federal Government to be exposed to a third-party liability incurred by the NGF and ALGON.”
The AGF stated emphatically that he won’t sit idly and watch the NGF and ALGON “turn around to create a situation that would expose the Federal Government to a liability even when it was indeed their liability that by their own showing, admission, and commitment, they have been servicing and they have conceded to.”
The Paris Club is group of public lenders who help debtor countries secure debt relief either by postponement or reduction in debt service obligations, amongst others.
