A Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday refused to stop the federal government from deducting $480M from the 36 states funds in the Federation Accounts to pay debt owed consultants in the Paris Club Refund.
This is due to the dismissal of the suit filed on behalf of the states by their various Attorneys-General for lacking in merit.
Justice Inyang Ekwo while dismissing the suit of the 36 states hinged his decision on the grounds that the plaintiffs ( Attorneys General) lacked the legal powers to institute the suit.
The Attorney General of Abia State and its counterparts in the 35 states had approached the court seeking to stop the federal government from going ahead with the planned deductions of their funds in the Federation Accounts to pay six consultants.
The consultants are those that helped the states to recover the excess deductions during the payment of the Paris and London Club loans.
President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the deduction of the sum of $480 million being judgment debt entered against the 36 states over their failure to pay contractors that helped them recovered excess deductions in the Paris Club refund.
Amongst the reasons adduced by the Attorneys General were that they never authorized any payments and that the said contracts were suspected as fraud, hence the need for the court to stop the planned deductions.
However, delivering judgment on Friday, Justice Ekwo held that the plaintiffs who are political appointees of their various states governor lacked the powers to initiate the suit without the consent of the governors.
The court aslo dismissed the suit as an abuse of court process because according to the judge, the plaintiffs by their suit are seeking to get the court to review the judgment of $480 million already entered against the 36 states.
Ekwo explained that what the plaintiffs should have done was to have filed a suit to set aside the judgment debt.
He subsequently dismissed the suit for lacking merit.