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Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), on Tuesday, confirmed the return of $110m assets recovered from different countries.
The minister, who spoke during the 2025 budget proposal held at the instance of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Justice, however, failed to give a breakdown of the fund, including the $52.88m recovered assets linked to former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, by the United States Government.
He explained that the ministry has developed a template for most of the agreements and sharing with some sub-nationals to help them review their contracts.
While speaking on the judgment obtained against the government, he said, “In the popular case of P&ID, there were so many issues involved, including engaging lawyers that are not up to the task. Some of these commercial transactions are not given to friends or lawyers merely because they are friends. They must be people who have capacities in terms of training and experience and we have learnt our lessons in this regard.
“We are trying our best to ensure that those we engaged are those with certified advisory given to us during the P&ID case. We want, however, that when you want to give cases out, you don’t do it out of patronage, we look at the competence of the counsel involved.
“For instance, the mere fact that you’re a constitutional lawyer in Nigeria does not make you a good commercial lawyer or an arbitrator offshore or even here. This one we have taken care of,” the AGF said.
While noting that the state governments are free to engage in foreign transactions, he noted that the sub-national governments are not recognised in arbitration cases, adding that it is the national government that takes such responsibilities.
According to him, back home, the Federal Government can direct the states “To pay or indemnify the national government or if they don’t indemnify, there is an implied condition that you ask them to pay or you probably deduct it from what is due to them when you’re doing the usual FAAC allocation.”
In the bid to avert future occurrences, he assured that measures were being put in place to ensure that agreements are properly signed, adding that there are instances where the Ministry has declined to approve many agreements between foreign agencies.
In his address, the Chairman of the Committee, Olumide Osoba, commended the ministry for its stewardship in the past year.
“In the past year, Nigeria has witnessed significant judicial decisions that reinforce the principles of justice and governance: 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.
“This ruling declared it unconstitutional for state governors to withhold funds allocated to local governments or to dissolve local government councils arbitrarily. It recognised local governments as the third tier of Nigeria’s governance structure, thereby strengthening grassroots democracy and enhancing service delivery at the local level.
“P&ID Case Success: Nigeria achieved a significant legal victory in the case against Process and Industrial Developments. The court quashed the previous judgment that had imposed a substantial financial liability on the country, thereby safeguarding our national assets and preserving economic stability.
“These judicial outcomes exemplify the robustness of our legal system and underscore the importance of unwavering commitment to justice and the rule of law,” he noted.
Speaking during the review of the 2024 budget defence, Osoba frowned at the failure of the Ministry to provide details on the utilisation of N4.7bn reportedly spent on legal services.
He explained that the Ministry is working to ensure that any entity working with Nigeria complies with the laws of Nigeria.
“You know it is sad to experience a situation or situations whereby 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 laws here.
“And so, we have the Arbitration and Prosecution Act which was passed into law in 2023. This has significantly impacted 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 the 2024 fiscal year for other purposes not approved by the National Assembly without due process.
