A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has disagreed with the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), says the £4.2m loot recovered from Ibori was taken from the Delta state government and it should be returned back to Deltan’s.
Falana stated this today while interacting with a Channel television program.
The Attorney general of the Federation (AGF) had yesterday hinted that if the looted money is repatriated it will be channel into federal government projects.
However, Falana has a contrary view on this, saying the money was initially stolen from Delta State Government and the right thing to do is to give the state back their money for its development.
Yesterday, the United Kingdom (UK) has made a commitment that it will return £4.2million loot it recovered from a former Delta State Governor, James Ibori to the Nigerian government.
Catriona Laing, the British high commissioner to Nigeria, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to that effect with Malami.
However, while airing his opinion on the matter, Falana argued that since the loot in question was taken from the coffers of the Delta State Government, the Federal government has no locus standi to decide how the money should be spent.
In his statement, “Having acknowledged the role of the federal government, the fund has to return to the source. Factually, between 1999 and 2003, the Delta state government like other state governments in Nigeria received its statutory allocation on a monthly basis and paid the same into the account of the government. From that account, some amount was alleged to have been diverted and taken to the United Kingdom,”.
“As the honorable attorney-general, the money is over £100 million. What has been released now is the first tranche of £4.2 million. Since the money left the coffers of the Delta state government, it has to be returned once this fund is recovered.
Falana explained that the onus now lies on Delta state people to monitor how the money will be spent by their state government and ensure it is not re-looted.
The Human Rights lawyer who described the UK government action as “smack of colonialism” insisted that it was even wrong from the first place for the British government to decide on how the looted fund shall be spent on Nigerian soil.
He said, “What I expect the attorney-general or the federal government — in the circumstance — is to collaborate with the Delta state government to ensure that the banks that housed the looted wealth of Delta state or the banks involved are made to pay colossal damages and interests for denying the people of Delta state the opportunity to use the money for development.”
