Delta State Governor Ifeayi Okowa says he has written a protest letter to President Muhammdu Buhari to return to the state the £4.2 million James Ibori loot being repatriated to Nigeria by the United Kingdom.
Okowa said this during a television interview Wednesday evening.
Nigeria and the UK had on March 9 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the repatriation of the funds stolen by Ibori, a former Delta State Governor. Shortly after the MoU, the Attorney General of the Federal and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami announced that the money would be spent on some federal government projects. A development that generated some controversy by some individuals and human right lawyers, who argued that the money was stolen from Delta state and should be handed over to the state.
The governor also followed the same argument.
He said: “In the same manner of the relationship created between the UK and Nigeria, we also expect that the Nigerian Government will do the same thing by being magnanimous to return the money back to the source, which is Delta State.”
“I have spoken with the attorney-general of the federation. My attorney-general went to have a meeting with him. I think that we are working and we are likely to come on the same page. We have written a formal letter of protest to Mr. President.
“We have made two suggestions; return the money directly to us or apply it directly to projects that we feel are of importance and are in Delta State so that Deltans can directly benefit from the repatriated funds and I don’t think anybody can fault that line (of thinking).”
