A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Abiodun Owonikoko on Tuesday said the statement made by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, attributing the dispute which resulted in the impoundment of the aircraft to the wrong handling of international affairs by sub-national actors may land Nigeria in trouble.
Owonikoko was speaking on Arise Television on the action of a Chinese firm, Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co Limited, which impounded three of Nigeria’s aircraft in Paris, France, following the order of a French court due to a dispute with Ogun State.
According to the senior lawyer, the various contradictory statements made by the Nigerian actors, especially a top government official like the foreign affairs Minister may not augur well for Nigeria.
“It you look at what is happening now, it is very dangerous. Former governor Amosun came up with his own explanation, the Ogun State government came up with its own, Gbenga Daniel came up with his own. I read the Foreign Affairs Minister also speaking in Equatorial Guinea giving a different account”.
“All of these are not going to be helpful to you in a court where you are challenging this matter because they can use all these different explanations against us as they are all functionaries of government and they are speaking different languages”.
“I see the Foreign affairs Minister identifying a loophole, where he said that the problem is that these states are doing these things on their own without reverting to either Foreign office or Attorney-General. That shows you there is a lacuna in the system that we operate now”.
“The foreign affairs Minister shouldn’t have said that outside Nigeria because he is admitting that it was our error. As a lawyer, until you test it in court, you cannot be too sure what is your strength but for somebody of that status to come out and say this mistake is from our end, is a problem for us”.
“The foreign affairs Minister said it is a mistake that thing didn’t pass through them. His own evidence is the most damaging because he is a representative of the Federal Government. Amosun is no longer a sitting governor. Anything he says can be taken as a private opinion”.
“But for the foreign affairs Minister to say that the mistake came from the governors not passing through the relevant federal authorities before they went and make the commitment, I wouldn’t know how that happen”.
Owonikoko advised President Bola Tinubu to instruct all those involved to stop speaking for now.
“The president should tell everybody to stop talking from now on. They should not even say anything for now but because everybody wants to justify himself that during my own time, i did the right thing. Nobody seems to think that there is a greater national interest involved at stake”.
