A 2025 profile says Adewole Adebayo challenged the CERPAC contract. The 2008 arbitration award names him as the contractor's advocate against Nigeria

On 1 September 2025 The Guardian published a profile headed "Adewole Adebayo: The international lawyer aspiring to become Nigeria's next president", under the byline of Martins Olufemi. In its account of his legal career, the profile says: "One of his most high-profile legal interventions came in a case that challenged the legality of a contract between the Ministry of Interior, the Immigration Service, and Continental Transfert Technique Limited. Adebayo argued that the contract, which involved the collection of residence permit fees, was exploitative, inflated, and symptomatic of the institutional corruption eroding public trust in our government." The next sentence attributes the view to him directly: "The case, he says, epitomised the systemic rot in our highest offices." Vero Record captured the page as it was online on 30 September 2026. Adebayo is the Social Democratic Party's candidate for president in 2027. INEC's signed final list prints him as entry 16, "ADEBAYO ADEWOLE EBENEZER".

The contract in question is the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card agreement, known as CERPAC. It was signed on 25 May 1999 between the then Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs and Continental Transfert Technique Limited, which also trades as Contec and which we call CTT here. The primary records Vero Record downloaded and read put Adebayo on the company's side of that contract, not against it. When CTT took the Federal Government to arbitration, the tribunal's Final Award recorded at paragraph 26 that the arbitrators met in London on 19 March 2008 "with Mr Wole Adebayo, the claimant's advocate". The two officials who appeared for the government side were from the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice. At paragraph 27 the award says the hearing ran at the International Dispute Resolution Centre, 70 Fleet Street, London, on 2-6, 9-10 and 12-13 June 2008. It adds that "Mr Adebayo (assisted by Miss Omotola Adu) represented the claimant", while Mr Oluyomi Olawore represented the respondents. The claimant was CTT. The respondents were the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of the Interior.

The company won. The award is signed by Bruce Harris, Sarosh Zaiwalla and Chief Assam E. Assam, and a certified copy of it was filed as Exhibit A to CTT's complaint in a US federal court. Paragraph 139 of the award reads: "THAT the claimant's claims succeed in the total sum of =N=30,021,469,207.48 and that the respondents' counterclaims succeed in the total sum of =N=361,303,000 and that there is accordingly a balance due from the respondents to the claimant of =N=29,660,166,207.48." The government was ordered to pay within 14 days. It was also ordered to pay US$247,500 towards CTT's costs and 95 per cent of the arbitration costs, which the tribunal fixed at GBP 253,467.20. Vero Record re-added the components listed at paragraph 136. The four heads of claim, N10.665 billion, N12.345 billion, N251,469,207.48 and N6.760 billion, come to N30,021,469,207.48. The three deductions of N43,000,000, N243,720,000 and N74,583,000 come to N361,303,000. The balance is N29,660,166,207.48, which matches the award.

The award gives the name only as "Wole Adebayo", so we checked whether it refers to the candidate. In its opinion of 23 March 2010, the US District Court for the District of Columbia cites a "Declaration of Adewole Adebayo in Support of Plaintiff's Opposition", a sworn statement filed for CTT in its case against Nigeria. On 14 February 2019 ThisDay reported a press conference in Abuja by "Dr. Adewole Adebayo", whom it called "Legal Advisor to Continental Transfert Technique Limited (CTTL)". In that report he listed the 2008 London arbitration among the proceedings the contract had survived. His Wikipedia entry, and at least one published biography, say that his firm acted for CTT in a dispute with the lawyer Femi Falana over the same contract. We have not seen a statement from Adebayo himself confirming that he is the advocate named in the award, but we found no record that points to anyone else.

The award then went to Washington. CTT sued the three Nigerian respondents in the District of Columbia on 25 November 2008. On 3 August 2011 Judge Paul L. Friedman confirmed the award. His opinion notes that Nigeria's own Federal High Court had found the award "cannot be set aside" and "is VALID and ENFORCEABLE". On 26 March 2013 he entered an amended judgment. It converted the naira and sterling amounts into dollars at the rates on the date of the award, N118.654 and GBP 0.53 to the dollar. It added prejudgment interest of $25,588,853.12, bringing the total to $276,111,640.96, with post-judgment interest from 3 August 2011. The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed that judgment on 16 January 2015. By our own subtraction, graded C, the judgment before prejudgment interest comes to $250,522,787.84.

The court's later orders show Nigeria resisting collection and CTT pursuing it. On 29 November 2016 Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey granted CTT's motion for sanctions, and on 31 January 2017 he imposed them after the defendants failed to answer a deposition notice about their assets. In an opinion of 17 February 2017 Judge Friedman wrote that "Nigeria and the other defendants have failed to comply with orders of this Court for at least three years", and let Nigeria's American lawyers withdraw. In 2018 CTT asked the court to attach an account that the Central Bank of Nigeria holds at JPMorgan Chase. The CBN intervened. On 6 August 2019 the court refused the attachment, holding that the funds were the CBN's external reserves and immune from seizure. The opinion records that CTT had combed 21,065 wire transfers from the account looking for commercial payments it could reach. CTT appealed in September 2019, and the docket shows the appeals court's mandate returned on 5 March 2020. We have not read that appellate ruling.

The Federal Government has described the debt in its own filings. In a prospectus for $300 million of Diaspora Bonds, dated 19 June 2017 and filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria told investors that CTT had sought about US$604 million, that the tribunal awarded about US$252 million, and that the Washington judgment stood at US$276.1 million. It went on: "In an out-of-court settlement chaired by the former Attorney-General of the Federation, the FGN agreed to pay Continental N18 billion in three installments within six months of the execution of the settlement agreement as well as extend the CERPAC contract for a term of three years as full and final payment. The sum of N7 billion has been proposed to be paid up-front, with subsequent payments of N6 billion and N5 billion. The judgment debt is still outstanding." The three instalments add up to N18 billion. The Debt Management Office's prospectus for the February 2017 Eurobond carries the same passage. The same filings describe how CERPAC fees were divided: 60 per cent to Nigeria, 30 per cent to CTT and 10 per cent for operating expenses.

The debt did not lapse. On 13 June 2024 CTT asked the Washington court to revive its judgment before the District of Columbia's twelve-year limit ran out on 26 March 2025. In a memorandum opinion and order dated 1 April 2025, Judge Friedman records that CTT "contends that it has yet to collect on the award" and that "Defendants have not responded to plaintiff's motion." He ordered that the amended judgment of 26 March 2013 "is hereby extended and enforceable for an additional period of twelve years from the date of this Order." On our arithmetic, graded C, that keeps the judgment enforceable until 1 April 2037. That date falls beyond both of the four-year terms a president elected in 2027 could serve.

Adebayo also defended the contract in public. ThisDay's report of 14 February 2019 describes him answering Femi Falana, who had alleged that the Ministry of Interior's decision to double the CERPAC fee from $1,000 to $2,000 in December 2018 diverted public funds. According to the report, Adebayo challenged Falana to a debate and said the allegations were "deliberate falsehood in its entirety". He said that no private company, CTT included, was authorised to collect fees for the government. He said the CERPAC agreement had been approved by the Kolade panel in 2000 and by the Federal Executive Council, and had survived dozens of Senate and House hearings and investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. This is press reporting of his words, graded B.

Falana's suit then reached judgment. According to Daily Trust of 9 March 2020, Justice Rilwanu Aikawa of the Federal High Court, Lagos, ruled on 20 November 2019 in suit FHC/L/CS/289/2019. He declared unconstitutional the contract between the Ministry of Interior, the Nigeria Immigration Service and CTT for collecting CERPAC fees. The ministry, the Comptroller-General of Immigration and Contec jointly appealed and obtained a stay of execution. Daily Trust reported that the affidavit in support of the stay, filed on 22 November 2019, was, in the words of the order it quotes, "deposed to by Omolara Sodeinde and a legal practitioner of Adewole Adebayo and Co. House of Law in Abuja". In one sentence the paper calls Adebayo "the lawyer representing the ministry". Elsewhere it calls him counsel to the third respondent, which in its account is Contec. We have not read the judgment, the notice of appeal or the stay order. In August 2021 the ICIR reported that the Court of Appeal had not yet heard the appeal, and we have found no appellate decision since then.

The contract has also troubled the National Assembly. The House of Representatives order paper for Thursday, 17 March 2022, which Vero Record read, lists a motion by Hon. Nasiru Sani Zangon Daura on passports, visas and permits issued by the Ministry of Interior and its partners. The motion says the House is "Disturbed that Messrs Continental Transfer Technique Limited (CTTL/CONTEC) has blatantly failed to honour several invitations and requests of the Committee". It proposes to "direct the Chief Executive Officer of Continental Transfer Technique Limited (CTTL/CONTEC) and Associates Technical Partners to appear before the Committee on Interior". An order paper lists business for the day. It does not show whether the motion passed or what the committee found.

None of this shows wrongdoing by Adebayo. Representing a claimant is ordinary legal work, and CTT's claim held up in London, in Nigeria's Federal High Court and in two US courts. The tribunal went out of its way to defend the company. At paragraph 135 it said there was "no evidence - indeed there were not even any allegations" to justify the government's invitation to the EFCC to pursue CTT, and that an objective observer "might reasonably form the view" that CTT "was being harassed". Falana's 2019 judgment is under appeal and its execution is stayed. Nothing Vero Record found shows that Adebayo has any financial interest in CTT or in the Washington judgment.

What the record does establish is narrower, and it can be checked. The only account of the CERPAC case in a national newspaper's 2025 profile of Adebayo describes him arguing that the contract was exploitative and corrupt, and quotes him calling the case an example of "systemic rot". The award, the US court record and his own 2019 press conference put him on the side of the contractor, first against the Federal Government and later in defence of the contract against Falana. The case he is said to have fought is also still open against the government he wants to lead. The judgment debt runs to 2037. The Federal Government has twice told bond investors, in writing, that it agreed to settle for N18 billion and that the debt was outstanding. The Ministry of Interior is on the same side as CTT in the pending Falana appeal.

Our own reading, graded C: if Adebayo won in 2027, he would appoint the Attorney General who answers for this judgment, and he would preside over the Ministry of Interior that signed the CERPAC contract and is appealing the ruling against it. His client in the arbitration is on the opposing side of the first matter and on the same side as his government in the second. A candidate in that position would usually be expected to say what his past role was, whether it has ended, and how he would handle the matter in office. The 2025 profile does not do that. It describes the opposite role.

Several things the records do not tell us. They do not say whether Adebayo gave The Guardian the account it published, or whether the passage is the writer's mistake. They do not say whether he or his firm still acts for CTT, or whether he was paid in any way linked to the award or the judgment. They do not show whether any of the N18 billion settlement was ever paid. None of the documents we read gives the amount now due with post-judgment interest. We could not establish the outcome of CTT's 2019 appeal in Washington or of the Falana appeal in Lagos, or whether CTT still runs CERPAC today.

Vero Record has prepared written questions for Mr Adebayo's campaign. Is he the "Mr Wole Adebayo" named in the 2008 award? Did he give The Guardian the description of the case that it published? Does he or Adewole Adebayo and Co. still act for Continental Transfert Technique Limited? Does he hold any interest in the company or in the judgment? How would he handle the judgment and the Falana appeal as president? Questions have also been prepared for CTT about the status of the N18 billion settlement and the revived judgment. Any reply will be added to this report in full.

What this rests on

The 2008 Final Award (filed as Exhibit A in US District Court, D.D.C. 1:08-cv-02026), read in full, which names "Mr Wole Adebayo" as the claimant's advocate and sets out the N29,660,166,207.48 balance. US court opinions of 2010, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019 and 1 April 2025, and the D.C. Circuit judgment of 2015, all read. Nigeria's SEC prospectus of 19 June 2017 and the DMO's February 2017 Eurobond prospectus, read. The House of Representatives order paper of 17 March 2022, read. Press reports graded B: The Guardian's profile (1 September 2025), ThisDay (14 February 2019), Daily Trust (9 March 2020) and ICIR (9 August 2021). Vero Record's own re-addition of the award figures, its subtraction of prejudgment interest and its expiry date for the revived judgment are graded C.

What this does not establish

Whether Adebayo supplied or approved The Guardian's passage. Whether he or his firm still acts for CTT, or holds any financial interest in CTT or in the judgment. Whether any of the N18 billion settlement was paid. The current amount due including post-judgment interest. The outcome of CTT's 2019 D.C. Circuit appeal (19-7107). The status of the Falana appeal from FHC/L/CS/289/2019, and the text of Justice Aikawa's judgment and the stay order, which were not read. Whether the 17 March 2022 House motion was adopted. Whether CTT still operates CERPAC. RIGHT OF REPLY IS STILL OUTSTANDING: the questions to Adebayo's campaign and to CTT are drafted but had not been sent at the time of filing, and the desk must send them and log the date before publication.