ByJohn Ainofenokhai<\/p>\n
TheSwiss government last week confirmed, through its ambassador to
\nNigeria, Chad,Niger and the Economic Community of West African States, Mr.
\nEric Mayoraz in anexclusive report with Daily Sunnewspaper that
\nSwitzerland had returned the remainder of Nigeria\u2019s public fundslooted and
\nstashed by the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, in some
\ncodedaccounts in the countries of Switzerland, Liechtenstein and
\nLuxembourg.<\/p>\n
Thatconfirmation came on the heels of an article, written by an
\nAbuja-basedjournalist, Mr. Sufuyan Ojeifo, which was published in some
\nnewspapers andonline news portals wherein he asserted that $322 million
\nhad been repatriatedaccording to information he received from some
\ncredible grapevines in Abuja.\u00a0 That report, in a way, underscored and
\nstillunderscores the integrity of the President Muhammadu Buhari\u2019s
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
Thefinal figure (reportedly made up of $250 million from Liechtenstein and
\n$72million from Luxembourg) is $1 million more than the figure of $321
\nmillion thathad hitherto been widely reported to be the remainder.\u00a0 This
\nis worthy of commendation.\u00a0 It is a product of transparent and
\ntransformationalleadership provided by Buhari.<\/p>\n
Hispoint man in the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), who is
\ntheMinister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, should also
\ngetsome plaudits for acquitting himself creditably in the final process
\nleading tothe repatriation.<\/p>\n
Malamihas been a subject of some myth and propaganda contrived by some
\nforces withinand outside some official quarters in Abuja aimed at
\ndiscrediting him and theengagement of some Nigerian senior lawyers who
\nhelped to scrutinize, vet andtidy up the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
\nsuch that a trilateral agreement crystallizedfrom it on December 7, 2017.<\/p>\n
Malamiwas in company with the team of Nigerian lawyers led by Mr. Oladipo
\nOkpeseyi(SAN) at the signing of the MoU by the Swiss government, World
\nBank and Nigeriaat the inaugural Global Forum on Assets Recovery (GFAR) in
\nWashington DC in theUnited States of America for the repatriation of the
\nmoney which must be channeledinto some national safety net projects. \u00a0Part
\nof the provisions of the MoU is that theWorld Bank would monitor the
\nprojects on which the money would be expended toguard against
\nmisappropriation.\u00a0 This isalso a welcome development.<\/p>\n
Butwhat is, however, reprehensible is the attempt by some forces back home
\ntoinsinuate that the decision by Malami to engage some Nigerian lawyers
\ntocomplete the processes involved in the signing of the MoU was an attempt
\ntore-loot the repatriated fund.\u00a0 Theirargument is hinged on their claim
\nthat the process had been completed by theSwiss lawyer, Enrico Mofrini,
\nwho started the process of tracing, confiscationand repatriation of the
\nlooted funds in 1999.<\/p>\n
Theirargument was obviously to rebut Malami\u2019s claim that the process had
\nnot beencompleted which was the reason he engaged the Nigerian lawyers
\nafter Mofrinireapplied to complete the process on a fresh payment of 20
\npercent professionalfees on the value of the money.\u00a0 Malamihad, in his
\ncounter offer, expressed the willingness of the Nigerian governmentto pay
\nfive percent.<\/p>\n
Bythe way, Monfrini\u2019s twenty percent offer, if Malami had accepted it,
\nwould haveamounted to $64.2 million as against the five percent ($16.1
\nmillion) withwhich he counter offered and which Monfrini rejected
\noutright.\u00a0 The Nigerian lawyers engaged to deal withMonfrini\u2019s mischief,
\nhowever, eventually settled for four percent to completethe process.<\/p>\n
Thepertinent question to continuously ask the forces that have deployed
\ntheinstruments of myth and propaganda in obvious attempts to discredit
\nMalami andthe process is: If Monfrini had completed the process, why then
\ndid he reapplyto complete the process on a fresh professional fee of 20
\npercent?\u00a0 Monfrini can answer this question.\u00a0 And, in doing that, he
\nshould be aware that hehas Malami to contend with in case he tries to
\ninsinuate some unlawful activity.<\/p>\n
Monfriniis a lawyer of international repute and I believe that if he had
\nbeen unfairlytreated, he should have taken it upon himself to sue Nigeria
\nfor breach ofcontract.\u00a0 He has not done that. I do notbelieve that
\nMonfrini suffered any breach of contract, the reason he hasdecided to keep
\nquiet.<\/p>\n
However,it is interesting that some forces in Nigeria have reportedly been
\non the trailof Monfrini to speak on the matter.\u00a0Initially, he was reported
\nto have disappeared and become inaccessibleas he was no longer responding
\nto their e-mail requests.\u00a0 Did they have to pressurise Monfrini to dothe
\nneedful if he had been wrongly treated? He would have fought his own
\nbattlehimself.<\/p>\n
Amusingly,the forces that are determined to discredit Malami had gone
\nahead, followingthe successful repatriation of the fund, to claim that
\nMonfrini had finallyresponded to their e-mail request, claiming that he
\ndid not ask Nigeria for anyfresh payment. Such a one-line claim is
\nrebuttable.\u00a0 It amounts, in the main, to his words againstthe words of the
\nNigerian government that he actually requested for freshpayment of 20
\npercent professional fees.<\/p>\n
Therefore,I posit with all sense of responsibility that in order to
\ndismantle the mythand propaganda against Malami, the process and the
\nNigerian lawyers whocompleted it, Malami may have to declassify any form
\nof correspondence orcommunication relating to Monfrini\u2019s offer and the
\nNigerian government\u2019scounter offer.\u00a0 This will help to
\nappropriatelyportray as unsophisticated the new onslaught by the
\nanti-Malami forces that areprojecting and syndicating Monfrini\u2019s purported
\nclaim in the media to theeffect that he did not ask for an extra dime from
\nthe Nigerian government tocomplete the repatriation process.<\/p>\n
Besides,it would also answer the question on the social media as to
\nwhether theengagement of Nigerian lawyers to complete the process on
\npayment of fourpercent professional fees is not a classical case of
\nre-looting the Abacha. Eventhe dimwitted would know that this can only be
\na classical case of hardnegotiation and prudent management of public fund.
\nIn this instant case, thereappears to be no truth in the allegation of
\nre-looting the Abacha loot.<\/p>\n
Thepremise of the social media-contrived narrative will also be shattered
\nby raw documentaryevidence that the Nigerian lawyers of Okpeseyi and
\nTemitope Adebayo actedproperly in the discharge of a legal contract on
\nwhich they were entitled tospecific percentage as professional fees agreed
\nto by both parties. Uponcompletion of the services, they deserve to be
\npaid their fees and not takenthrough needless anguish due to the antics of
\nsome distraught forces.<\/p>\n
Thesuggestion by the anti-Malami forces that he probably did not need
\nlegalconsultants to help him complete the process cannot hold waters as
\nsuchservices are not illegal.\u00a0 Those were theexact services that Monfrini
\nwas offering to past Ministers of Justice andAttorneys-General of the
\nFederation since 1999. Malami could not, therefore, havebeen wrong to have
\nengaged Nigerians lawyers whose experience he leveraged on inthat area at
\nthe least possible cost to the nation.<\/p>\n
Ifthe anti-Malami forces are complaining about the Nigerian\u00a0 government
\nhaving to pay the Nigerian lawyersas they have claimed N6 billion, would
\nthey have preferred that the Nigeriangovernment paid the Swiss lawyer,
\nMonfrini, close to N40 billion for the sameservices? What are they talking
\nabout?\u00a0If it is bad belle against theNigerian lawyers, they should go
\npursue other consultancy contractselsewhere.\u00a0 The operating space is
\nwidefor birds to fly without clashing now. Fact of life.<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Mr. Ainofenokhai, public affairscommentator, contributed this
\npiece from Benin.<\/p>\n
ByJohn Ainofenokhai TheSwiss government last week confirmed, through its ambassador to Nigeria, Chad,Niger and the Economic Community of West African States, Mr. Eric Mayoraz in anexclusive report with Daily Sunnewspaper…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n