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Paris Club Refund: Female Contractor Petitions IGP Over Alleged Threat To Life
A female contractor and Managing Director of Andrew Bishopton Nigeria Limited, Jackie Ikeotuonye, has petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, over alleged threat to her life and those of her family by the powers that be, in Ebonyi State.
The Ebonyi State Government contracted the company in 2015 to pursue and recover excess deductions on foreign and local loan facilities and other hanging funds, especially the Paris club refund, on its behalf.
She said her life became threatened after the state government reneged on the contract terms it had with the consulting firm, refused to pay the agreed 25percent commission; abruptly terminated the contract and when she approached the court to seek redress.
The development led to her arrest and detention, in August, 2022.
She stated this in a petition she made available to journalists, in Abakaliki, yesterday.
In the petition, which was written by her solicitors, Henry Chukwudi& Co., she called on the police authority to swing into action to unravel the circumstances that led to her initial arrest and detention, in August.
The petition read in part, “We are solicitors to Dr. Jackie Ikeotuonye and Andrew Bishopton Limited; (hereinafter referred to as our clients) and on whose firm and unequivocal instructions we make the following representations.
“The said company was appointed by the Ebonyi State Government as a consultant to recover excess deductions/charges on foreign/local loan facilities and other hanging funds on behalf of Ebonyi State via a letter dated 6th October, 2015, and signed by the then Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Dr. Dennis Ude Ekumankama.
“This appointment was followed by a consultancy services agreement signed between the Ebonyi State Government and The Company on the 17th day of November, 2015 wherein it was stated that the state would pay the company 25percent of any sum reconciled, recovered and paid into the account of the state by the Federal Government.
“Meanwhile, on completion of the assignment, the governor of Ebonyi State sent in two demand letters to the Hon Minister of Finance for the repatriation of the reconciled amount of $119, 419,427.59 being over deductions on the account of Ebonyi State Government foreign loans service.
The said letter is herewith attached as annexure 006 for your ease of reference.
“Yet, they claimed our clients did nothing. It might interest you to know that Ebonyi State sadly has an antecedent for disengaging consultants at the point of payment for services.”
It added, “It is further in our brief that instead of towing the path of honour and pay our clients their dues, the state government instead in response to their letters for payment, purportedly terminated the contract via two letters backdated to 26th September, 2016 and 7th June, 2016.
“It is further in our brief that our client’s children are still and highly traumatised, and psychologically disoriented due to the commando style in which the stern looking and heavily armed men stormed our client’s home.
“At the moment, the governor and the government of EbonyiState are still threatening to deal with our client if our client does not go to the High Court in Port Harcourt to set aside the judgement.
“I, therefore, use this medium to call upon you Sir, to use your office to ensure that justice prevails and to put the governor and the Government of Ebonyi State to check.”
But the Commissioner for Information in the state, Barrister Orji Uchenna Orji, denied the state government ever contracted and owed Andrew Bishopton Nigeria Limited, saying that the claims by the latter were baseless and unfounded.
During a press briefing, in Abakaliki, he alleged that the representatives of the organisation, had, at various times confessed it never had any contractual agreement with the state government.
“The general public is enjoined to discountenance the claims thereof as shenanigans of unscrupulous elements who are on a forum shopping over a clearly and notoriously baseless allegation of performing consultancy services for the Government of Ebonyi, and please discard their claims as vaulting ambitions of greedy people who are on fruitless enterprise and wild-goose chase looking undeservedly for funds meant for the development of Ebonyi State.
“The state government had in different communications extracted confessions from the representatives of Andrew Bishopton Nigeria Limited to the effect that the said company and its partners acted in bad faith and had no contractual basis to make claims against the state government and or the local government councils in the state in respect of any transaction executed or services rendered whatsoever for or on behalf of the state government and or local government areas in the state.”
The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.
He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.
“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.
He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.
“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.
“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.
“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.
He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.
He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.
The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.
This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.
The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.
Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.
The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.
From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.
From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.
Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.
From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.
The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.
The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.
The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.
Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.
He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.
This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.
The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.
Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.
He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.
The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.
Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.
Chinedu Wosu
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