Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Aare Afe Babalola, has revealed how he charged the sum of $30 million for helping the government recover $300m from banks.
Babalola made this revelation in an interview with a radio talk show host, Ifedayo Olarinde aka Daddy Freeze.
The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, in Ekiti State, cited another instance when he charged Mobil $5m in an appeal case he handled for the company in the 1980s.
According to him, Mobil initially rejected his asking fee and engaged another SAN in Lagos, who charged them N500,000, but lost the case.
He said, “Yes… The client has a right to pay in dollars or its naira equivalent. This time I was in my office when a message came from Lagos that Mobil people from the Netherlands, Scotland, and America wanted to see me. I went there and met some directors there. They had a big case, and I charged them $5m.
“They decided to negotiate, but I said no; that was what I would charge for the case. They said, ‘Ok, you would hear from us.’ I went back to Ibadan. They never came back.
“About two years later, the same Mobil sent for me, and I went. They told me that the last time we referred a case to you, you charged us $5m, but when you left, one of us said there was a senior advocate in Lagos who demanded less than N500,000, so we paid him. Now we have lost.
“From the way you addressed us and the confidence we have in you to handle the appeal for us,. Can you handle it for us? Why not? But my fee remains the same amount.
“They said don’t worry, we will pay this time. Not only did I collect the money, I also won the case for them. So they remain my clients; I became the special adviser to the company.”
When asked about other bigger legal fees he had charged, the senior lawyer recalled striking a deal with the government to get a 10% commission upon recovery of the sum of $300m from some banks.
“I can remember one case where there was a syndicate of banks fighting the government over a certain matter. I said you would pay me 10% of what I collect from them. At the end of the day, I collected $300m for them and, of course, 10% for me,” he said.
