The Nigeria Governors’ Forum has responded to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami over the controversy trailing the payment of consultancy fees amounting to $418 million from the Paris Club refund.
In their response, the forum said the Attorney-General should be more concerned about how the government can fund university education and not channel money into private pockets.
Speaking on a breakfast program, Sunrise Daily on Channels Tv, monitored by truthlive.net, the spokesman of the NGF, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo questioned why the AGF was so concerned about private claims to state funds.
According to him, there is no component that compels the governors’ forum to pay consultants anything, and there is no agreement between the consultants collectively and governors collectively.
He said the Paris fund money has been exhausted, and the consultants and the attorney general are expecting the money to be deducted from states’ accounts from sources over 52 or 58 months which he says is unheard of.
Bello-Barkindo said what the NGF is saying is that there is no money to be paid and the monies that have been paid are gross errors.
He said what the NGF is asking for is evidence of work done adding that some of them said they have constructed primary health cares across the country, and others said they have provided boreholes, these are physical things that you can show.
He said the matter is in court adding that the court is the only authority that can determine clearly whether there is a reason for payment or not.
In 2021, the governors obtained an order from a federal high court in Abuja restraining the federal government from deducting the money from states’ accounts for the purpose of paying the disputed debt.
On Thursday, Malami claimed the Governors had no basis for disputing the payments.
He said the consultants were hired by the Governors and that they had taken steps to pay before backtracking and taking the matter to court.