By Emma Amaize, Regional Editor, South-South

FORMER Member, House of Representatives and lawyer, Prince Ned Nwoko, has disclosed that the 36 States and 774 Local Government Areas in the country never thought that anybody could stop the Federal Government from deducting money on front line charge from their statutory allocations to service Paris Club loans when he took up the gauntlet as a consultant, over 12 years ago.

Nwoko, who spoke in an interview with BBC news in Igbo, asserted: “On the issue of Paris Club refunds… as a practicing lawyer in United Kingdom, I had many big briefs from Nigerian government, Moroccan government, Ghana government, British government, etc. When you work at that level, you can determine your fees. So as a consultant I determine my fees and the kind of work I do are very specialized. Very few people can do what I do.”

“For instance, the issue that led to Paris Club refunds has to do with loans taken at a time, repayment of those loans, wrongful deductions and over deductions, not every lawyer will have the benefit of knowing what was wrong in a country like Nigeria and then be able to take it to the Western world and challenging them in courts in United Kingdom, United States of America, Austria, Franze, Switzerland.

“If you know the level I was operating at that point in time, you can imagine ex-governors of states like Boni Haruna of Adamawa state, Jolly Nyame of Taraba state, Governor Abdulkadir Kure of Niger State, Peter Obi of Anambra state, Martin Elechi of Ebonyi state and a lot others, these were governors coming to my office in London and we were going to court with them.

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“We are talking about huge matters and I was at the forefront, I gave them the confidence that all I needed was their support, backing to be able to stop the wrongful deductions because what was happening was sad. The fact that so many states’ allocations were been deducted to service loans that have been overpaid over time, so we had to stop it.

“But I have to give thanks to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who listened to me, then National Security Adviser, Lieutenant General Aliyu Gusau retd, then Chief of Staff to the President, Major Gen Abdullahi Mohammed retd, so I had the support that I needed back home coupled with the official support and backing by the governors.

“So we were able to get cracking, my fees were determined by me at that point because the states were not paying me, and I told them it was no win, no pay basis so I was charging percentage of whatever was recovered.

“The same thing I have to work for the local governments, all the local governments across the country never took out any loans, they never did, yet money given to them was subjected to front-line charge deductions, they were taken money from them at source to service loans that they did not take at all.

“I felt that I could help them, again, they did not fund the litigation, they did not know that it was possible to stop such deductions at source, but I told them that my work would do many things, first of all, it will stop this wrongful deductions which is did and secondly, it will refund all the previous wrongful deductions which also happened.

“So if I was charging 20 per cent I did, they were happy because it was a win-win for them, they never thought there was this opportunity. It is not just about been a lawyer, it is about being at the right place at right time and knowing what to do, what to do for the people.

“But when I was working for the masses, I was doing that either on legal aid or for nothing, I was just supporting people. You see there are lawyers and there are lawyers. Even though I still have my practice certificate, I do not go to court anymore, I work as a consultant just as you know that even doctors get to a stage and they become consultants,” he asserted.

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