The Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, said the £4.2 million looted by a former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, and repatriated to Nigeria from the United Kingdom recently, has been returned to the state.
Idris disclosed this in Abuja, on Tuesday, when he appeared before the House of Representatives’ Ad hoc Committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loot, 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, who was reportedly grilled by the committee for over an hour, stated that such funds looted from the treasury of a state were always returned to the state.
He added that states could sue the Federal Government to recover such funds.
But his position is in dalliance with that of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, who had as of the last time he spoke on the issue, explained that the money was returned on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed with the British Government spelling out how and on what projects the money would be spent.
Malami had ruled out the possibility of Nigeria breaching the terms of the MoU.
Brsides, he had also said in a statement last Tuesday that the “naira equivalent value” of the total £4,214,017.66 “has been credited into the designated Federal Government account” since May 10.
His spokesperson, Umar Gwandu, who issued the statement, did not disclose the actual naira equivalent paid into the Nigerian government’s account.
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa had last week, asked the FG to return the funds or invest in projects in the state.
Okowa said: “Letters have been written and we have made appeals to Mr president and the attorney general of the federation.
“We asked for two things, it’s either the money is returned to us or the money is applied to projects in Delta State and we have suggested some projects to which the money can be applied. The £4.2 million is about N2.2 billion by current exchange rates.”
Malami had countered, arguing that the funds would not be returned as it goes against the agreement signed with the UK.
But curiously, he had also appealed to Delta State leaders to appeal to the former Governor to withdraw a suit that was creating some mischief in the return of the fund. It could not be ascertained whether or not the suit had been withdrawn.
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