A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and core litigation lawyer, Chief Niyi Akintola, has revealed that another one billion dollar judgment hangs over the country Akintola, therefore told the Federal Government to brace up for more judgment debts already entered against the country on account of contracts awarded but were later cancelled.

Akintola, who is a senior member in the rank of the silks, spoke on Saturday against the backdrop of the $9.6 billion judgment debt hanging over the country in a case instituted by P&ID against the Federal Government, while featuring on Fresh FM radio’s ‘Political Circuit’, a live interview programme monitored in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

He revealed that a $237 million judgment was entered against Nigeria by an arbitration panel in the United Kingdom in 2003 in a case brought before it by an Ibadan-born entrepreneurial icon, Chief Bode Akindele, against the Federal Government over the cancellation of the contract for the purchase of the defunct Nigeria Telecommunication (NITEL).

Chief Akindele, according to Akintola, who described Nigeria as “a country where anything goes” successfully bought NITEL from the Federal Government for a sum of $237million and paid one third of the sum.

He explained that Akindele’s refusal to “play ball” and part with some shareholding for some interests in government at that time led to the contract being called off for no justifiable reason, prompting the legal battle before the arbitration panel.

Akintola said further that accumulation of interest since 2003 when the judgment was given would have shot the debt up to about $1 or $2 billion. (Sunday Tribune)

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