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Legal luminary and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Aare Afe Babalola, has recalled how he made a whopping $30m for helping the government recoup $300m from banks.
The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, in Ekiti State, divulged this information as he revealed some of the big legal fees he has charged clients in his illustrious career.
Babalola revealed this in a recent interview with a radio talk show host, Ifedayo Olarinde, aka Daddy Freeze.
The nonagenarian also recalled another instance where he charged Mobil $5m in an appeal case he handled for the oil company in the 80s.
He noted that Mobil had initially rejected his asking fee and proceeded to engage another Lagos SAN who charged them ₦500,000 but lost the case.
When the show host said he learnt that he charged Mobil $5m in a case, the legal juggernaut replied in the affirmative.
He said, “….The client has a right to pay in dollars or (its naira) equivalent. This time I was in my office then a message came from Lagos that Mobil people from 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 after, the same Mobil sent for me and I went. They told me that the last time we referred a case to you and 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," Babalola narrated.
After praising him for the courteous manner he addressed them and the confidence he exuded, the company proceeded to ask him to handle the appeal for them.
"Can you handle it for us?" they asked, to which he said, "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 client; I became the special adviser to the company,” and the rest is history.
Quizzed about the bigger bucks he made from handling a case, Babalola recalled negotiating 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,” the SAN said.