One of the consultants in the payment of the Paris Club loan refund to the states has sued the 36 state governors in his bid to compel them to pay him $176m or the naira equivalent of N53.6bn (at official N305/dollar) as his consultancy fee.

The consultant, Ned Nwoko, accused the governors and the Nigerian Governors’ Forum of paying those he described as phoney consultants.

Nwoko had initially written to the NGF to demand the payment of the fee as agreed between his firm and the states.

In his statement of claims, he said, “Despite repeated demands, the defendants have failed or refused or neglected to pay to me the sums due to me for the services rendered.

“That I have not been paid the sums due and payable to me by the state governments and that the defendants made payment of the said sum to some phoney and sham consultants.”

He stated in the statement of claim, which was sighted by our correspondent, that he was “ready and willing to give an undertaking as to damages.”

Nwoko argued that instead of “paying to me the sums due and payable to me for the legal and consultancy services rendered, which led to the realisation of the said release and payment (of the Paris Club refund),” the NGF, governors, Ministry of Finance “caused part of the said money released for legal and consultancy fees to be paid to phoney and sham consultants, who did not render any consultancy and legal services to the state governments.

The PUNCH learnt on Sunday that Ned Nwoko Solicitors, also asked that his firm be paid $71,936,881.36 and N21,940,748,814.30 by 15 states.

Nwoko’s demand was one of the several letters received by the NGF secretariat from consultants, who claimed to have been engaged by the state governments.

It was learnt that the 36 governors of the federation were becoming worried as the number of consultants demanding certain percentage of the Paris Club loan refund continued to increase.

Investigations by our correspondent showed that many of the consultants had sent their letters to the governors while others routed theirs through the national secretariat of the NGF.

The demands were later sent to the NGF.

All the governors, in their letters to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, had asked that five per cent of the loan refund to their states be deducted and paid to the NGF directly.

The majority of the letters were titled, ‘Re: Over-deduction on Paris and London Clubs loans on the accounts of state and local governments (1995-2002)’.

A letter from one of the governors requested the minister to “deduct the payment of five per cent consultants’ fee at source from states’ entitlement and paid directly into the NGF secretariat account provided below to defray related consulting and incidental expenses.”

The letters also listed the accounts which the money was to be paid into.

Sources close to the governors said some of the consultants were, however, asking for what was described as a ridiculous amount from the governors.

Documents obtained by our correspondent indicated that some of these states agreed to pay the consultants between 10 to 20 per cent of the money to be recovered by them from their creditors.

Some of the states that signed agreements to pay 10 per cent to their consultants are Abia, Kogi, Adamawa, Taraba, Delta and Zamfara.

While Ondo State signed to pay 12 per cent, states like Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, Niger signed to pay 15 per cent.

Bayelsa, Oyo and Edo states agreed to pay 20 per cent to their consultants.

For example, the Bayelsa State Government, in its letter dated February 4, 2008, and signed by the then Commissioner for Finance and Budget, asked a consultant (name withheld) to pursue the “problem of her foreign and external debt.”

The consultant was appointed as “solicitors to Bayelsa State Government on Foreign/External Debt.”

Concerning fees, the state government agreed to pay “a total sum amounting to three per cent of any such verified sum and representing the true position of state foreign indebtedness, which said sum must be below the claim at the Debt Management Office.”

The state also promised to pay “20 per cent of all money recovered from the Federal Government or any other institution as money paid in excess of the actual debt owed by the state as at date.”

It was also gathered that the issue of consultants became more problematic when the NGF was factionalised at the tail end of the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The former president has refused to recognise the former Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, as the second term chairman of the forum.

He, therefore, encouraged its split as the governors of his political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, formed a parallel NGF, which was led by the former Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Jonah Jang.

However, the Jang-led NGF, which had Mr. Osaro Onaiwu as its Coordinator, gave letters of appointment to some consultants on the Paris Club refund as well.

One of the governors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the indiscriminate appointment of the contractors had became problematic for the NGF.

He said, “There were so many claims by the consultants. There was a governor who said a consultant was demanding $40m as his fees.

“How do you give such a huge amount to a single person whose job you can’t even seem to see? That’s the problem, but I must say that the majority of the consultants were genuinely engaged not by us, but by some of the former governors.”

It was also gathered that Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo had raised the issue of the huge sums of money being paid to the consultants at a meeting he had with the governors while acting as President.

“Astonished with the huge sum, the acting President even asked what type of jobs these consultants did and whether we issued them receipts,” the governor said.

It was gathered that the NGF had paid more than N10bn as fees on the Paris Club loan refund to the consultants.