oyb:

you will recall that NEXT was the ONLY paper that announced that GEJ ouch yardua was brain dead in saudi arabia

next is probably the most credible newspaper in nigeia today

i'm just pointing out that simmonscooperpartners exists, and that next made references to a letter by them. if you want to carry out your personal investigations, you can start from there.  

Kobojunkie:

I didn't say the company did not exist. Again, what I said is 234NEXT's version of the story seems way out-of-this-world for me. The summary of the story you have there from simmonscooperpartners seems more like it came from the wikileaks leak. However, 234NEXT's version is what I question.

This is Africa, and I know many of our media houses try the best they can, but I have made it a habit to filter all I read appropriately and look for extra confirmation rather than simply believing anything I read from our papers especially.

3. (C) Petrosinelli reported that Pfizer had tentatively reached "an agreement in principle" on the Kano AG\'s settlement offer of $75 million. Adams explained that the parties agreed that the $75 million would be broken down as follows - a $10 million payment for legal fees; $30 million to the Kano State government; and $35 million to participants and families. Petrosinelli noted, that Pfizer has worked closely with former Nigerian Head of State Yakubu Gowon and that he has played a positive mediation role with Kano State and the federal government. Petrosinelli said Gowon also spoke with Kano State Governor Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, who directed the Kano AG to reduce the settlement demand from $150 million to $75 million. Adams reported that G[b]owon met with President Yar\'Adua and convinced him to drop the two federal high court cases against Pfizer.[/b] (Comment: In 1966 Gowon became the head of state following a military coup that deposed Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi who had come to power via an earlier military coup. He was head of state from 1966 to 1975. He now plays an elder statesman role in Nigerian politics. End Comment.)

oyb:



telephone is not for the poor

nigerians are not poor as they are not eating out of dustbins

doesn't look like thewilight zone to me

Kilode?!:

I read Gowon said those words too, SMH,  they never fail to hide their disdain for their own people. Absolutely disgusting.

oyb:

nooo. gowon didn't say those words, but some twats in power did david mark if i recall, and some other dude

i'm just highlighting the callousness of the idiots running this country

even more shocking when you consider the fact that 99% of them were born into dirt poor backgrounds

oyb:


even more shocking when you consider the fact that 99% of them were born into dirt poor backgrounds

oyb:



telephone is not for the poor

nigerians are not poor as they are not eating out of dustbins

doesn't look like thewilight zone to me

oyb:

http://www.nigerianpaperstoday.com/2010/12/10/wikileaks-us-embassy-cables-details-how-pfizer-blackmailed-nigerias-attorney-general-michael-aondoakaa-to-enter-into-75m-nigeria-settlement-for-kano-drug-trial-victims/

elder statesman indeed

bastar-d

Kobojunkie:

I don't get it!

That I know is likely from the wikileaks leak, and still less of what 234Next has there on this same issue.

ridgeman:

Fast forward 10-20 years when the victims and their dependants start overwhelming the resources of Kano state- where will these elder statesmen be?

Gowon and Bayero worked for Pfizer
By Nicholas Ibekwe

January 9, 2011 01:23PM

As the opportunity for the victims of the 1996 Pfizer clinical trial in Kano of getting satisfactorily compensated continues to hang in the balance, a NEXT investigation has uncovered the despicable conduct of prominent Nigerians who sold their conscience to partake in what the late President Musa Yar’Adua described as “Pfizer’s blood money”.

In 2007, 11 years after the Trovan trials, the federal government and the Kano State government finally woke up to their responsibility of holding Pfizer accountable for using Nigerian infants as guinea pigs. Two separate suits, civil and criminal, were filed against the company. Pfizer, which had earlier approached a suit filed by the victims with levity, apparently realising the issue was no longer child’s play, decided it was in its best interest to reach a negotiated settlement.

Clandestine negotiations

NEXT investigations show that George Bush, the former president of the United States, sent his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, as well as former diplomat, Thomas Pickering, to establish contact with late president, Umaru Yar’Adua, with a view to reaching a settlement.

Apart from the Kano State and federal government officials, as well as senior Pfizer employees and counsels who made up the committee, NEXT can exclusively reveal that Pfizer also secured the services of prominent Nigerians for what was termed “extensive informal contacts and understandings.”

Commenting on the manner in which Pfizer approached the negotiations, SimmonsCooper Partners, the law firm that acted as external counsel to both governments (Kano State and Federal Government), said “Pfizer adopted tactics that included using political or non-legal initiatives to engage the two Governments involved into accepting its terms.”

In the letter, sent to NEXT by SimmonsCooper Partners, it was stated that Pfizer “employed lobbying tactics, while appearing to also discuss the issue in the context of a legal matter.”

As part of Pfizer’s “lobbying tactics”, it secured the services of a former head of state, Yakubu Gowon, and the Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero (represented by a senior traditional ruler), amongst other unnamed political elites especially in the North who, NEXT discovered, were instrumental to influencing the Kano State government to significantly reduce its claim.

“Meetings were protracted, complex and frustrating, and the negotiating process adopted by Pfizer greatly undermined the committee and government representatives by also reaching out to influential persons that they believed could seal the terms in their favour,” said Simmons Cooper, in a corroboration of what our source told us.

The significance of the influence exerted by Mr. Gowon, the representative of the Emir of Kano, and the other influential Nigerians employed by Pfizer as lobbyists, is better appreciated when one considers the fact that the Kano State claim, which was initially $2 billion dollars, was drastically reduced to $150 million, and finally to $75 million.

Pfizer, in an apparent attempt to justify the role played by politicians and traditional leaders in their getting what is literally a slap on the wrist, had stated through its attorney, in a letter seen by our reporter, that “informal contacts and understandings” are common in multi-faceted negotiations of this nature.

[b]Gowon’s derogatory statements

One of the prominent Nigerians employed by Pfizer, Mr. Gowon, was apparently so determined to get a favourable settlement for Pfizer that he, against what must have been his better judgement, let his tongue loose.

During one of those meetings where terms of settlement were being negotiated, Mr. Gowon, who was representing Pfizer which earns over $18 billion annually in profit, worked hard to secure a paltry settlement. He is quoted as telling negotiators that the worth of the life of a child born and bred in Kano cannot be compared to that of a child born and bred in the United States. This was apparently in response to entreaties that Pfizer should pay the same rate of compensation it would pay had the trial taken place in the United States.

This comment, NEXT gathered, generated deep anger and criticism among those at the meeting and the former head of state, sensing he had overstepped the mark, quickly apologised and begged that the comment not be repeated outside the meeting room. A source present at the meeting, who wants to remain anonymous, confirmed that Mr. Gowon actually made these comments attributed to him.[/b]

Lukman Ishola, counsel to the victims of the Trovan trial, described the role of the Emir of Kano and Mr. Gowon as shameful.

“What Gowon did was like asking Bill Clinton to negotiate on behalf of Al-Qaeda. What Pfizer did in Kano is not short of terrorism, because they had a prior knowledge of the harm the drug is capable of causing, yet they deliberately administered the drug to sick infants,” Mr. Ishola said.

It is not clear how much Messers Gowon and Ado Bayero got paid for working (lobbying on behalf of Pfizer) but our research indicates that lobbyists in America, Pfizer’s home country, make between N1.3 billion ($9 million) and N10.5 billion ($70 million) a year.

However, Pfizer spokesperson, Chris Loder, said in response to our enquiry that “any suggestion that Pfizer has made improper payments to government officials or anyone else is false.”

Mr. Gowon has not responded to an email enquiry we sent to him as at the time we went to press. Our efforts to reach Mr. Bayero for his response to these allegations were also unsuccessful. His secretary insisted he would not talk to our reporter on the phone. He also did not respond to text messages asking if our Kano reporter can visit him to hear his side of the story.

Aondoakaa was involved too

Our investigations further uncover various underhand dealings that led to the final settlement between Pfizer and the government. The multinational drug manufacturer employed both inducement and subtle pressure on political and traditional leaders. Pfizer officials at various times used a Wing Aviation chartered flight to travel from the Murtala Muhammed Airport Lagos to Kano. During those trips, bags which are suspected to have contained money, exchanged hands.

NEXT investigations also reveal that apart from official meetings held in Dubai and London to negotiate a settlement (which we learnt was funded by Kano State government), other clandestine meetings were held in London, where participants were paid handsome honorariums by Pfizer, which, we also gathered, paid all the bills accrued from the trips.

Another person who played a pivotal role in letting Pfizer get away with what is no more than a symbolic settlement was former attorney general, Michael Aondoakaa. Despite his saying that he did not know anything about the settlement, that he was already out of office when the settlement deal was signed, NEXT investigations have categorically found that he was the mastermind of the settlement deal.

“I don’t know about this money you are talking about. I didn’t touch a kobo. The lawyers were dealing with Pfizer directly and the matter was still on when I left office,” Mr. Aondoakaa had told our reporter in a previous interview.

But according to SimmonsCooper Partners, the federal government “is primarily represented by the AGF, and Aandoaka served as the lead counsel on behalf of the federal government. He in fact held meetings with and concluded the discussions with Pfizer for the FGN, in our absence,” the lawyers said.

A family affair

Mr. Aondoakaa, we gathered, invited his cousin, Paul Orhii, now the director general of National Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), to join the negotiation team, describing him as an “expert” on such matters. Protest by members of the government negotiation team that Mr. Orhii, due to his relative inexperience as a lawyer may not be equipped to handle such a high profile and sensitive case fell on deaf ears, as the former AGF insisted on having him in the team.

Eventually, our sources say, members of the federal government negotiating team were sidelined and Mr. Orhii, together with the former AGF, took charge of talks with Pfizer. A reliable source who was fully in the know about the negotiations told NEXT that Mr. Aondoakaa was so determined to mastermind the proceedings that he stopped consulting counsels to the government when important decisions were made. Our investigation also reveals that Mr. Aondoakaa only sent the final settlement papers to the government lawyers for their signature after the decision on a settlement had been reached.

It is still not clear if Mr. Aondoakaa got any pecuniary benefit in the Pfizer deal, but NEXT did confirm that contrary to what has been set as standard procedure where all parties, Federal lawyers and Kano State lawyers were always present at all negotiations with Pfizer, Mr. Aondoakaa did hold at least one clandestine meeting in Dubai with Pfizer representatives.

It isn’t clear what was discussed at the meeting, but according to our source, it came as quite a shock to government lawyers when they realised the man who had essentially employed them to act on his and government behalf was now holding direct calendestine meetings with Pfizer.

Bello Adoke was not candid

NEXT investigations also reveal the Attorney General of the Federation, Bello Adoke, was less than straight forward when he told our reporter in an interview we did in November last year that the Pfizer settlement had nothing to do with him.

“He (Mr. Aondoakaa) is the person who decided the issues of the case before I came here as the AGF. As for the terms of the settlement, what I am told is that the case was settled under a non-disclosure legal term,” Mr. Adoke had said.

However, our investigation shows that as at the time the negotiations were underway, Mr. Adoke was working for Pfizer. Indeed, he attended every meeting held both in Dubai and London. On one of such meetings held on March 5, 2008 at the office of the AGF, Mr. Adoke was listed alongside Damian Dodo, Anthony Idigbe, Sam Nwakohu, and Ebelechukwu Egeonu as Nigerian counsels to Pfizer. So while he may not have been Attorney General at the time, as a Pfizer lawyer, he was fully conversant with the case.


NEXT WEEK, IN THE THIRD PART OF OUR EXCLUSIVE INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE PFIZER TRIALS, WE EXAMINE THE INFIGHTING BETWEEN LAWYERS TO THE VICTIMS OF THE TROVAN TRIALS AND GOVERNMENT COUNSELS, AND THE IMPACT THIS HAD ON THE CASE

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/Metro/Crime/5662185-146/gowon_and_bayero_worked_for_pfizer.csp