Barely five days to the end of his tenure, President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking the approval of the Senate for a request to pay $566,754,584, £98,526 and N226 billion being judgement debts.
The monies were owed by the Federal Government through the issuance of promissory notes.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan, read the President’s letter of request during plenary on Wednesday.
The request is coming four months after 648 cases were brought against the President and other federal government parastatals.
The letter read in part: “In view of the foregoing, I wish to request the Senate to kindly consider and approve, through its resolution, the settlement of a top priority judgement debts and general judgement debts incurred by the federal MDAs in the sum of $566,754,584, GB98,526 and N226,281,801,881.
“The Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning shall provide any information that may be required by the Senate for the consideration of this request.”
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami (SAN), had in January, revealed that no fewer than 648 cases have so far been instituted against the President, the Federal Government of Nigeria and agencies of government from 2015 to date.
Malami said the cases are at states, federal and ECOWAS courts, pointing out that all present judgments were inherited from the previous administration.
“All the 648 cases that the ministry is defending against the federal government which are at different stages of trial, were incurred by previous administrations.
“Not a single kobo was paid by the federal government as professional legal services for the defense of these cases”, the AGF explained.