Even though the document was uploaded on Lagos State’s procurement website, still live as of Tuesday evening (PDF), Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has denied paying N200 million to lawyers to help counter a personal lawsuit over his eligibility for reelection.

Mr Sanwo-Olu said the document exposing the mindless looting of Lagos was from an unknown origin after it drew controversy among Nigerians, scolding opposition politician Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour for amplifying it on social media.

“The allegation was supported by a document that neither carried the logo of the Lagos State Government nor the endorsement of any of its officials,” Mr Sanwo-Olu said in a statement signed on his behalf by Gbenga Omotoso, his information commissioner. “It was simply another ploy to deceive the public about a non-existent payment of N50,000,000 to four lawyers.”

But the document was simply downloaded from the state-run portal holding documents for already awarded contracts to vendors. While several other expenditures had been deemed outrageous by Nigerians and widely condemned, the suspicious payments to four different law firms, which were specifically billed as settlements for a pre-election lawsuit brought by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party on Mr Sawno-Olu’s eligibility, carried even more severe criminal implications.

As governor, Mr Sanwo-Olu was not supposed to use state funds to settle personal lawsuits. Anti-corruption office EFCC prosecuted a senior lawyer Paul Usoro for accepting funds directly from state coffers to represent former governor Udom Emmanuel at the election petition tribunal between 2015 and 2016.

Mr Udom could not be charged at the time because he was a serving governor and entitled to constitutional immunity from prosecution, but lawyers have no such immunity and could be made to account for conniving with politicians to fleece the public.

Mr Sanwo-Olu’s denial could help stave off an anti-graft investigation of lawyers who were paid N50 million each, which include Babatunde Ogala, Muyiwa Akinboro, Ahmed Raji and Femi Okunnu. Messrs Raji and Ogala were contacted for comments. A spokesman for the EFCC did not immediately return a request seeking comments.

The Lagos government also mischaracterised the documents as containing proposed budgetary expenses, even though they were clearly marked as containing letters of already awarded and settled contracts for state vendors. It was part of the state’s monthly procurement disclosures, which were mandated by the World Bank and other international organisations seeking to bolster transparency across Nigeria. Most of Nigeria’s 36 states have dedicated websites for procurement activities.

The latest controversy over Mr Sanwo-Olu’s dubious use of public funds returned to headlines over the weekend after an opposition politician Funso Doherty wrote an open letter to the governor in which he highlighted all questionable contracts and their financial implications for the state.

But after several days of silence, the governor sought to push back on the controversy, falsely blaming Mr Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party’s governorship candidate in the March 2023 election, for circulating unverified information.

Mr Rhodes-Vivour, “on November 19, 2023, alleged – without any proof whatsoever – that the Lagos State Government funded Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s legal dispute after the March 18, 2023 election. This is not true,” Mr Omotoso falsely stated in his statement Tuesday afternoon.

The commissioner did not return a request seeking comments about why he would impugn the credibility of a document that was downloaded from the state’s website. Nonetheless, he said in his statement that Mr Sanwo-Olu would desist from misappropriating public funds in disregard of his oath of office.