The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on Wednesday, ruled out sharing with Delta State the just recovered £4.2 million from the United Kingdom looted by former governor of the state, James Ibori.
Federal Government had on Tuesday confirmed receipt of the funds from the United Kingdom government.
Speaking on Channels Television, Wednesday morning, the AGF said there was no intention by the Federal Government to share the recovered loot with Delta state government, adding Nigeria would not deviate from the agreement reached with the United Kingdom government on how the fund was to be spent.
Malami, while responding to questions on the programme, said the government would expend the fund on projects.
The AGF said the fund would be expended on projects according to the agreement reached with UK government.
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.”
However, Delta State government is seething.
It said the state had reached out to the Federal Government to have a share of the recovered money.
According to the state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa: “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),” Governor Okowa said in an interview in a recent interview on Channels Television.
Meanwhile, the state and Niger Delta groups had earlier requested that the fund must on, repatriation from the United Kingdom, be transferred to the state where it was stolen.
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