Nigerian businessman Louis Emovbira Williams was authorised by the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York to take out $21 million from Nigeria’s JP Morgan bank account, which was utilised to conceal money from sales of crude oil to overseas organisations.

In August, Justice Liman Lewis turned down Nigeria’s request to have the complaint brought forth by Mr. Williams, who claimed he was defrauded of millions of dollars in 1986 in a food importation contract by the Nigerian government. Mr. Williams said that after returning to Nigeria from the UK to get the money, he was not only defrauded of $6.5 million by the Nigerian government but also subjected to abuse by the SSS and put on trial for “economic sabotage.” Despite spending three years in jail after receiving a 10-year sentence in 1986, he was released from prison in 1989.

August 1993 saw him receive a presidential pardon from then-military head of state Ibrahim Babangida. He also signed a “Fidelity Guarantee and Abiding Memorandum of Understanding of Assurance” committing him to payments of N5 million, which included a 25 percent compound interest rate, and roughly $6.5 million, which would be paid to him at a rate of 17 percent compound interest on a rollover basis starting in 1986. However, the money was never received. The problem remained unsolved for decades due to CBN’s refusal to pay the lump payment. Mr. Williams then filed a lawsuit in a UK court, where the West African nation was forced to reimburse the businessman with compensation, following Nigeria’s return to civilian governance.

The seizure of $21,231,960.74 and £19,763.130 from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s JP Morgan account was approved in 2018 by Justice Mary Clare Moulder of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom. The federal government, the federation’s attorney general, CBN, JP Morgan & Co., and other unnamed parties are among the defendants in the lawsuit. The businessman successfully argued his claim to the millions of dollars from Nigeria’s JP Morgan account before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, after obtaining a court order allowing him to take the money. However, CBN asked that the case be moved from the Supreme Court to a subordinate court so that Nigeria could assert its right to sovereignty.

Nigeria contended that because a sovereign state cannot submit to the orders of other countries, it possessed sovereign immunity, rendering it immune to the UK court judgement. Nigeria, however, lost its case because Mr. Liman of the U.S. District Court of New York ruled that Nigeria had already given up its sovereign immunity under the provisions of the Fidelity Guarantee given to Mr. Williams in 1993. For the avoidance of dispute, it is therefore necessary to consider that CBN and the Nigerian State have relinquished any immunity from execution over funds held in their respective names.

In 1993, the Nigerian government gave Mr. Williams a Fidelity Guarantee, which specified that any payment in [paragraph] (14) above that remained unpaid will be borne by Nigeria or any institution of Nigeria (except diplomatic). “The Nigerian State and the CBN shall not raise or invoke any defences in order to deprive Dr Williams of the money mentioned in [paragraph] (14) above, nor shall they cause him to suffer financially,” the Guarantee stated. Mr. Liman concluded that as sovereign immunity had previously been waived by the Guarantee, Nigeria could not again claim it.

The U.S. judge declared on August 12 that “therefore, the Fidelity Guarantee reflects a waiver of sovereign immunity for any proceeding in any court to recognise and enforce a judgement pertaining to Plaintiff’s seized funds.” Reluctant to give up its monetary asset, the Nigerian government has already attempted to appeal the decision to the Second Circuit in New York, where records have been forwarded. There, the reasons will be re-examined and redetermined. Nigeria had already lost on comparable grounds to another U.S. court of appeals in Washington, D.C.; this court decided in favour of Zhongshan Chinese investors to confiscate Nigerian assets abroad due to a bungled free trade zone agreement.

The District of Columbia Circuit’s Chinese case appellate ruling is not enforceable by the Second Circuit courts, which includes New York. The case joins the growing number of legal battles that damage Nigeria’s standing among its international peers, as French, British, and Canadian courts have all issued rulings approving the seizure of Nigerian assets abroad. When the money is recovered, Mr. Williams said it will be put towards bettering Nigerian children’s health and education.