The Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris has confirmed that the recovered Ibori loot, which is about £4.2millon has been returned to Delta State.
The £4.2million loot was recently repatriated by the Federal Government from the United Kingdom, and there has been debate as to whether or not the Federal Government should return the money to Delta State before this latest development.
Idris has disclosed that the recovered Ibori loot has been returned to Delta State Government on Tuesday, when he appeared before the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loots Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria for Effective Efficient Management and Utilisation.
The Accountant-General told the Committee such funds looted from the treasury of a state are always returned to the state.
He added that states can sue the Federal Government to recover such funds.
FG is returning the recovered Ibori loot after lawmakers insisted that the funds were stolen from Delta State and as such, should rightly be returned to the state. They added that the funds are needed for the infrastructural development of the state.
In effect, the House had urged the Federal Ministry of Finance to stop forthwith further appropriation/and or disbursement of the recovered looted fund pending the final determination of the matter by the House.
House Minority leader, Mr Ndudi Elumelu, while moving the motion a few weeks ago, faulted the decision to transfer the money to the coffers of the Federal Government for appropriation without recourse to the Delta State Government.
Elumelu argued that if the Federal Government is allowed to appropriate the funds without recourse to the Delta State Government, the people of the state would be shortchanged and deprived of legitimate resources to improve on the economy of the state, as well as provide the requisite infrastructural development for their benefit.
Elumelu added that he was privy to information that the actual money is £6.2 million and not £4.2 million as claimed.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami when asked about the recovered Ibori loot, had said that the United Kingdom and Nigeria have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on what to do with the £4.2 million stolen by the former Delta State Governor, which is not to return the money to Delta State.
Malami, said the recovery of the stolen fund is part of efforts of the current administration to fight corruption and that the money will be used for the construction of the second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano road, and Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
Following criticisms on why the loot is not returned to Delta, Malami in an interview had insisted that it will be used for federal projects and will not be returned to the state where it was pilfered.
“The major consideration relating to who is entitled to a fraction or perhaps the money in its entirety is a function of law and international diplomacy,” Malami said during the television interview.
He argued that the law that was alleged to have been breached by Ibori was a federal law and that the parties of interests involved in the repatriation of the funds were national and not sub-national governments.
“All the processes associated with the recovery were consummated by the Federal Government and the Federal Government is, indeed, the victim of crime and not sub-national,” he said.