The ECOWAS Court of Justice on Friday ordered the Cross River State Government to pay an outstanding loan of $6.5million it obtained from ECOWAS Bank in 2005 to fund the TINAPA project.
The $6.5million translates to about N2.5billion at the current official exchange rate.
Edward Asante, a member of the three-man panel who delivered the judgment, ordered the statement government to make “immediate repayment of the sum of $6, 455,846” to the bank.
He also ordered the respondent to pay “the agreed interest of 6.5 per cent per annum on the sum of $6,455,846 commencing the August 31, 2018 until date of final payment.”
Mr Asante also ordered the respondent “to submit to the court within two (2) months from the date of this judgment, a report on the measures, including payments, to implement the orders set forth herein.”
How it began
The administration of ex-governor Donald Duke was said to have taken a $10million (about N3.8billion) from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EIDB) following a loan agreement dated May 20, 2005.
In its debt recovery suit it filed against Cross River State Government in 2019, EIDB, a financial institution arm of ECOWAS, contended that the respondent “has since the grant of the facility, consistently and persistently failed, refused and or neglected to fulfil its obligations in the loan agreement.”
It stated that as of August 31, 2018, “the sum outstanding as total arrears against the defendant is a sum of $6,445,846.00 (USD) only.”
The bank stated that the Cross River government refused to pay the debt despite series of demand letters, meetings with the state government officials including the incumbent governor, Ben Ayade, in Calabar, the state capital, and the restructuring of the payment of the loan in July 2017.
Responding, the state government said it paid part of the principal and interest until January 1, 2010 but started defaulting “due largely to inadvertence of…
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