The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi has confirmed the return of over $110 million assets recovered from various countries of the world.
Fagbemi disclosed this during the 2025 budget defence of the ministry when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Justice chaired by Hon. Olumide Osoba on Tuesday.
He said that the ministry had developed a template for most of the agreements and shared them with some of the state governments in order to help them to review contracts, saying “that is where most of the damages and risks are.”
Fagbemi noted that although state governments were at liberty to engage in foreign transactions, the sub-national governments are not recognised in cases of arbitration, stressing that it is the national government that takes such responsibilities.
He stated: “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, in terms of experience and we have learnt our lessons in this regard.
“So, we are trying our best to ensure that those we engage are those with certified advisory given to us during the P&ID case. That whenever 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, so this one we have taken care of.”
The AGF stressed that in a bid to avert future occurrences, measures are being put in place to ensure that agreements are properly signed. He stressed that there were instances where the ministry had declined approving many agreements with foreign agencies.
Earlier, Osoba commended the ministry for ‘landmark’ achievements recorded so far. According to him, in the past year, Nigeria has witnessed significant judicial decisions that reinforce the principles of justice and governance.
These, he said, include the Supreme Court ruling on Local Government autonomy, affirming the financial and administrative autonomy of local councils.
Osoba said the ruling declared it unconstitutional for state governors to withhold funds allocated to local governments or to dissolve local government councils arbitrarily.
The AGF recalled that the Supreme Court also recognised local governments as the third tier of Nigeria’s governance structure, thereby strengthening grassroots democracy and enhancing service delivery at the local level.
Osoba noted: “These judicial outcomes exemplify the robustness of our legal system and underscore the importance of unwavering commitment to justice and the rule of law.”
But he frowned on the failure of the ministry to provide details on the utilisation of N4.7 billion reportedly spent on legal services.
THISDAY