Fresh facts have emerged following a controversial agreement signed by a former Oyo State Attorney-General, Adebayo Shittu, which has left the State grappling with a mounting potential claim in liabilities, as exclusively gathered.
Shittu, as Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General during Governor Rashidi Ladoja’s administration in the State, as reliably gathered, singlehandedly appointed New Nwoko as solicitors to recover funds belonging to the State particularly in relation to the Paris Club refunds.
In the agreement signed by Shittu, according to a reliable source, 20% of the recovered funds were to be paid to the Solicitors, in addition to a N55 million mobilization fee.
However, a late former Governor of the state, Abiola Ajimobi during his own tenure as governor when the secret leaked to him, described the agreement as “fraudulent” upon reviewing the file in 2016.
Surprisingly, Shittu gave the Solicitors the option to choose London as the seat of Arbitration in the event of Dispute, raising questions about the justification or logic behind the decision.
The Agreement has led to an ongoing Arbitration in the London Court of International Arbitration, UK, as thsolicitors are currently seeking 20% of the sum of $149 million allegedly “recovered”. This has other financial implications for the State.
Meanwhile, as the current state government navigates this ongoing dispute, the controversial agreement signed by Shittu continues to haunt the state’s finances, plunging it into a seemingly further perpetual cycle of debt.
