Kano — Out-of-court settlement talks between pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the Kano State government broke down at the weekend after the government and representatives of victims' families turned down an offer of $10 million compensation from the company.
This was disclosed to newsmen yesterday by chairman of the victims' association, Alhaji Mustapha Maisikeli shortly after a Kano High Court presided over by the acting Chief Judge, Justice Shehu Atiku, adjourned the case to October 6 and 7.
He said after a series of meetings in Abuja, London and in Dubai last week, the victims turned down an offer of $10,000 to each victim with minor deformities and $100,000 to each victim with major deformities or death arising from the Trovan drug test of 1996.
The meeting, which was attended by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Chief Michael Andoakaa, Pfizer representatives and chairman of the Kano trial victims association Alhaji Maisikeli, failed to reach any agreement after the victims and the state government turned down Pfizer's offer. Maisikeli said the offer was outrageous
and demeaning, considering the offer that was made to some victims in Europe and other places.
He said it was amazing how the same company would offer to pay $21million for settlement of all legal fees incurred by both parties in the case, while paying a paltry $10 million to the 200 victims in Nigeria.
"We want to announce that talks between us have failed after they discriminatorily offered to give us $10 million, the same amount offered since the beginning of this year. This is at a time they equally offered to give the counsel $21 million dollars for the cost of litigations," he said.
The chairman described Pfizer Nigeria's lawyers as clogs preventing the reaching of an acceptable settlement between Pfizer and the victims.
He said, "It is unfortunate that it is Nigerian lawyers that are blocking any tangible agreement after they agreed to collect $21 million from Pfizer as litigation fees, while insisting that we must collect $10 million as compensation."
The chairman also accused some politicians, traditional rulers and lobbyists for pressurising them to accept the compensation despite the injustice involved.
He said, "Over $950 million was paid by Pfizer to victims of the same test in Asbesto while $430 million was equally paid for litigation in that case.
It is the same company in collaboration with some Nigerian lawyers that is insisting that we be given only $10 million as compensation", he said.
But counsel to Pfizer who was also accused by the victims of sabotaging the ongoing out of court settlement, Chief Anthony Adighe (SAN) insisted that discussions were on to reach an acceptable settlement between Pfizer and the victims.
He had earlier asked the High Court One presided over by acting Chief Judge of Kano State, Justice Shehu Atiku to adjourn the case in view of the upcoming legal year and the fact that the court would soon go for vacation.
The court then adjourned the criminal case to 7th of October while the civil case was also adjourned to 6th of October.
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Lawyers will be lawyers. Reject the $10Million and slug it out in court! The more the case drags on, the more it dents Pfizer public relations and credibility. Ignore the Vultures that are pressurising you to accept the peanuts, enlist the help of the media and the masses to fight it to a logical conclusion. And make sure Pfizer products are banned in the state if possible.
Having been following with keen interest the various attempts to reach a settlement on this matter, I am now convinced more than ever before that those trying to raise the bar in the settlement talks don't really have the interest of the people of Kano at heart. The so-called chairman of the victim's association looks like someone who wants to seize the opportunity of the talks to milk the pharmaceutical company dry. The reference to how much Pfizer or some other company paid in some other unrelated cases is unhelpful because the circumstances are totally different. From what I have seen in this case, and considering the gaffes (such as the case of Anas Mohammed) the government of Kano and the federal government are going to make the patients lose out. We don't have a water-tight case and we are behaving as if we had one. By the time the case goes to trial proper, we will be negotiating from a position of weakness. This is not the time to blackmail Pfizer but a time to negotiate based on the authentic list of patients. Government officials who are looking for ways of dribbling Pfizer's money into their pockets can't claim to be foghting for the people. I hope that reason will eventually prevail and all parties will return to the negotiating table.