I Was Accused Of Defrauding Firm For Protesting Unilateral Reduction Of My Legal Fees, Prof. Akinseye-George Tells Court

Prof. Yemi Akinseye-George, SAN has told the FCT High Court presided over by Hon. Justice O.A Adeniji that Nacenn Nigeria Ltd paid N100 million through his account, adding that the money was not paid pursuant to a demand but in accordance with the agreement they had.

In addition, he stated under cross-examination that Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN and Femi Falana, SAN obtained judgement for the first defendant.

“But after 20 years the debt was not paid. It was during the garnishee proceedings stage that I was contacted by the late CEO of the 1st Defendant, who engaged my service to get the debt paid”, he said.

He also said that while working for the company on the recovery of the judgement sum, his engagement with the company never expired, “My engagement never expired, it cannot be said that my engagement ever expired. I worked until the entire sum was recovered.”

He further told the Court that it is true that his letter of engagement expired on the 31st day of March, 2018 and that it is not correct that the late CEO of the 1st Defendant, Engr. Ezulike communicated the termination to him in April, 2018 adding that “he never did. I am not aware that the 1st Defendant extended my terminated appointment till 15/5/2018.”

He also stated that his appointment was not terminated by the company on 6th day of August, 2019.

“This never happened, my appointment was never terminated till we finished recovering the #2billion debt. It is correct that the #100m paid to me on 28/11/2019 was 20% of #500m recovered that time”, he told the Court.

Furthermore, he said from the Federal Ministry of Justice, they first recovered N100million and he was paid 10% thereof, which is N10million and that when the second installment of N150 million was paid, he was paid N15million before the death of the late CEO.

Similarly, he said another major payment of N500 million came from the Federal Ministry of Finance. He however noted that the late CEO made commitments to certain individuals. Thus, he was paid N50million and another N50million was used in fulfilling the late CEO’s commitments.

Meanwhile, he further told the Court that

“So up to that time, effectively I was paid #75m as fees. About 6 months later, another payment came from Federal Government which was #466m. I was then paid #10.5m, which was 2.5% of the amount paid. That was all. I then protested that my fee was unilaterally cut to 2.5% without any negotiations.

“The next thing I had was the termination of my contract and that I had defrauded the company. It was the response of the new management of the company to my refusal to accept the unilateral reduction of my fees.”

Besides, he said that it is not true to say that the refusal of the company to pay him 20% of N416 million as at May, 2020 led to the institution of the present action in Court. He stressed that his “claim was for 10% not 20%”.

Meanwhile; the Court has further adjourned till 18th and 25th February, 2021 for continuation of further hearing.

Recall that the Applicant had earlier petitioned the NBA President, Olumide Akpata, on this matter.