THE Federal Government has ruled out accommodating Delta State in the spending of £4.2 million recovered looted funds associated with the family members of former governor, James Ibori.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa had yeaterday asked the FG to return the Ibori loot to the state.
Okowa, who spoke at the quarterly media briefing in Asaba, also gave the FG the option of investing it in specific projects in the state.
According to him, the state government had written the Attorney General of the Federation and the presidency to table the request.
In his words, “Now that the United Kingdom has returned the money to the country, we want to ensure that it is refunded to the state. Letters have been written and we have made appeals to Mr. President and Attorney General of the Federation. We asked that either the money is returned to us, or applied to projects in Delta State.
“We also suggested some projects to which the money can be applied. The £4.2m should amount to about N2.2b going by current exchange rate,” he said.
But Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said Nigeria would not deviate from the agreement reached with the United Kingdom government concerning the disbursement of the fund.
He said this while answering questions during a Channels Television programme, Politics Today.
The minister said, “The way international diplomatic processes operate with particular regard to the recovery of looted asset is more or less about engagement among the nations of interest.”
