Paris Club Refund Consultants Sue Rivers Govt Over N25bn Fee.
Two consultancy firms, J.O. Atunbi and Mauritz Walton Nigeria Limited that assisted some states to get Paris Club refunds have dragged Rivers State Government before an Abuja High Court over its alleged refusal to pay them a debt of N25billion or 18 per cent of N143 billion
The Rivers State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice was also cited as a Defendant in the suit marked FCT/HC/CV/374/2021.
The Claimants told the court that the debt accumulated, following the failure of the Defendants to pay an agreed sum which is the consultancy fees for its role in the federal government’s refund of excess deductions in the Paris Club loans.
The Claimants told the court that Rivers State Government engaged them sometime in March 2014, “as consultants for the propose of forensic analysis and reconciliation of the deductions and consequential recovery of the excess debits/deductions which appeared to have been made against the first defendant by the federal government”.
They averred that the Defendants had in the engagement letter, agreed to pay them 18% of all monies recovered/paid from/by the federal government upon reconciliation and agreement on the exact excess debits.
According to them, following the agreement, they intensified their engagement with the federal government and discovered that the Rivers Government had between June 1995 and March 2002, suffered excess deductions regarding its external loans/debt repayment in the total sum of $462,593,183:07, which sum they, therefore, demanded to be refunded to the 1st Defendant.
In a 33 paragraph statement of claim deposed to by the Chief Executive Officer of Mauritz Walton Nigeria Limited, the Claimants, said they continued interfacing with the federal government on behalf of their clients into the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, which in 2016, agreed to commence with payment of 50 per cent of the outstanding excess deductions to Rivers and other states with a similar situation.
“That the federal government, through its relevant agencies made good its word and paid to the 1st Defendant in/by three instalments between December 2016 and September 2018, or thereabouts, the Naira equivalent of the sum of $296,014,055 being the sum of N90,839,170,683:84, based on the said approximate exchange rate of N305/310 to $1.
“Notwithstanding its receipt and enjoyment of the refund of excess debits on its foreign loans account by the claimants’ intervention in the circumstances, the first Defendant has refused/neglected/failed to pay the claimants the agreed 18% thereof in full or in part, despite several requests and seemingly unfruitful meetings between the Rivers State Government and Dr Maurice Ibe over a period of 30 months.
“The Defendants still persisted in their failure/refusal to pay and finding the situation inexplicable and intolerable the claimants accordingly instructed their legal practitioners who by a letter to the Governor of Rivers State dated January 2019 demanded for the payment of the agreed consultancy fee”, the Claimants added.
They told the court that following the failure of the Defendants to respond to their solicitor’s letter, they engaged a set of senior lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, to continue to discuss with the Rivers Government, demanding for payment of their consultancy fee or for a meeting of the parties for a resolution of the matter.
They claimed that though the Governor of Rivers State, Nysome Wike, earlier promised to engage them in an out-of-court settlement, he later reneged.
The claimants said convinced that the Defendants had no defence to their claims and seeing no other option, they decided to initiate the suit.
Aside from the N25 billion they are asking the court to order the Defendants to pay them, the Claimants are also seeking an interest rate of 20 per cent per annum from November 2018 until judgment and thereafter at the rate of 10 per cent per annum until full and final payment of the N25 billion debt.
The claimants are further asking the court for a cost of N400million or as may be assessed against the Defendants
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