The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Chief Lateef Fagbemi,has confirmed the repatriation of over $110 million in recovered assets from various countries.
He disclosed this on Tuesday during the 2024 budget defense and the presentation of the 2025 budget proposal, which was held at the instance of the House of Representatives Committee on Justice, chaired by Hon. Olumide Osoba.
He explained that the Ministry has developed a template for most agreements and is sharing it with various state governments to assist in reviewing contracts, as this is where many of the damages and risks often arise.
Speaking on the judgment obtained against the government,he recalled the well-known case of P&ID, highlighting the multiple issues at play, including the involvement of lawyers who were ill-equipped for the task.
According to him,commercial transactions should not be entrusted to friends or lawyers simply due to personal relationships. Instead, they must be professionals with the right training and experience. He added that valuable lessons have been learned from these experiences.
“We are making every effort to ensure that the individuals we engage are those who have provided certified advisory services to us during the P&ID case. Our approach is that when assigning cases, it should not be based on patronage; rather, it is essential that we prioritize the competence of the legal counsel involved.
“For example, simply being a constitutional lawyer in Nigeria does not automatically qualify someone to be an expert in commercial law, offshore arbitration, or even domestic arbitration. This is an important consideration that we have addressed in our approach.
“While noting that state governments have the freedom to engage in foreign transactions, he emphasized that in cases of arbitration, subnational governments are not recognized. The responsibility, he clarified, falls on the national government.
He further explained that at the domestic level, the Federal Government has the authority to compel subnational governments to pay or indemnify the national government.
He added:”If they fail to do so, an implied condition exists that allows the national government to either request payment directly or, alternatively, deduct the amount from the funds due to the subnational governments during the usual FAAC allocation process”.
He assured that measures are being implemented to ensure that agreements are signed appropriately. He also highlighted that there have been instances where the Ministry has withheld approval for several agreements with foreign agencies.
Hon. Osoba commended the Ministry for its remarkable achievements to date.
“In the past year, Nigeria has seen significant judicial decisions that reinforce the principles of justice and governance, with one of the most notable being the Supreme Court ruling on local government autonomy.
“On July 11, 2024, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment affirming the financial and administrative autonomy of local governments. The ruling declared unconstitutional the actions of state governors who withhold funds allocated to local governments or dissolve local government councils arbitrarily.
“By recognizing local governments as the third tier of Nigeria’s governance structure, this judgment has bolstered grassroots democracy and is poised to enhance service delivery at the local level. The decision represents a critical step toward ensuring effective governance and empowering communities at the grassroots.
“Nigeria has achieved a significant legal victory in its ongoing battle with Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID). A court has annulled a previous judgment that imposed a substantial financial liability on the nation, thus protecting the country’s national assets and reinforcing economic stability”.
Speaking during the review of the 2024 budget defence, Hon. Osoba who frowned at the failure of the Ministry to provide details on the utilisation of N4.7 billion reportedly spent on legal services.
He explained that the Ministry is working to ensure that any entity working with Nigeria comply with the laws of Nigeria. There’s one critical area where we also as much as possible stand our foot, that is in the area of arbitration especially the laws that govern administration and the seat that govern arbitration.
“You know it is sad to experience a situation or situations in which people come here to take our money and still want the seat of arbitration outside Nigeria and the relevant laws that govern their transactions to be laws in England. So, they have to choose to do business with us, take our money and also comply with our own laws here.
“And so, we have arbitration and prosecution Act which was passed into law in 2023. This has significantly impacted on our fortunes in this regard.”
The lawmakers also accused the Ministry of usurping the powers of the Parliament for re-appropriating the approved funds for 2024 fiscal year for other purposes not approved by the Parliament without due process.
