$22.7bn Chinese Loan: Igbo Group Sues FG |The Source

By Tosin Olatokunbo

Igbo Board of Deputies, a group representing the south east of Nigeria has sued the Federal government for sidelining the region from projects funded from a $22.7 billion Chinese loan.

In an application filed at a federal high court in Abuja, the group is asking the court to stop the China Exim Bank, to suspend loan disbursements to the Nigerian government until the five states in the region were represented in the projects.

According to SaharaReporters, the group had earlier in March written a letter to the Chinese bank in Johannesburg, South Africa warning the bank to suspend the loan.

The group had also petitioned the Economic Community of West African States Court, according to one of the petitioners, Austin Okeke.

He said the federal government deliberately sidelined the region in the projects to be funded from the loan, adding that future of the people of the areas has been mortgage with the loan they did not benefit from.

Okeke said “On March 11, we delivered a letter of demand to China Exim Bank in Johannesburg, calling upon it to give an undertaking in the following manner.

“Suspend the loan disbursement, alternatively, cancel the approval of the loan to the Nigerian government until it has revised or amended the manner it intends to allocate the proceeds of the loan to include projects in the South East of Nigeria, which projects shall directly benefit the Igbos; and;

“As a condition, tie the loan repayment to the regions of Nigeria that inherit the projects, as Nigeria flounders and threatens to break up.

“In going forward, the Chinese government must ensure that all projects are valued and open bid for, following international best practices to ensure standard quality and fair cost.

The present Nigerian government is prone to project cost inflation, and future generations are not obligated to pay for fraudulently inflated prices. Failing which we shall join China Exim Bank as a Defendant party to the lawsuit against the Government of Nigeria.

“We say so because we do not guarantee the repayment of these loans by the other federating units of Nigeria in so far as the deliberate discrimination against the Igbos in Nigeria persists.

“The Igbos are not beneficiaries of the proceeds of the loan, and shall not participate in servicing and repayment of the same as a matter of principle, fact and law.

“The Igbos shall not be held liable for these loans, not now and in the future. We will not mortgage the rights and interests of our future generations for something they neither partook in nor benefited.”