Emmanuel Onani Abuja 
The £4.5 million allegedly looted by former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, and stashed in the United Kingdom (UK), belongs to the oil-rich state, and must be so designated. Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itsey Sagay, Chief Mike Ahamba, and Mr. Israel Olorundare – all of whom are Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), reached this consensus.
The learned silks, who spoke in separate telephone conversations with Sunday Telegraph, cautioned the federal government against plans to apply the funds to developmental projects outside Delta State, from where the money was laundered.
It would be recalled that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), had announced the readiness of the UK government to return the whopping £4.5 million, being money traced to Ibori, who was convicted by a court in London, in 2012.
Among others, Malami had said that the federal government will use the money to complete 2nd Niger Bridge, as well as the Abuja,Kano and Lagos – Ibadan expressways.
The trio has, however, disagreed with the position of government insisting that the money be returned to Delta State, for the sake of justice. In Sagay’s view, the action of government, if not reversed, will amount to robbing Peter to pay Paul.
According to the PACAC’s chairman, whatever agreement the federal and UK governments have necessitating the anticipated repatriation of the money, was not binding on Delta State.
“It is the view of the same federal government that this money came from Delta State. I don’t see, under what circumstances on earth, they can think of applying it towards any other part of the country, in terms of project.
“They don’t have a choice, because to do that would be forcefully taking assets belonging to Delta State, and definitely Delta State will have the right of legal action… You can’t agree with the British to take away another person’s assets.
That is illegal. So, your agreement with the British will be binding on you, but definitely not binding on Delta State.
“So, that is it and maybe, they can use the money and apply to the areas they agreed to but they have to pay delta state that money or at the very least, apply it to projects in Delta state”, the professor of law said.
In his submission, Ahamba said notwithstanding that the state had denied that money was missing, the government at the centre still has no basis upon which to lay claim to the cash. Hear him: “I think they (Delta State) have their lawyer to fight it over. Let them discuss it and decide on what they want to do there.
I don’t see why the federal government should say it owns the money, except that Delta State denied ownership of the money at a point. That is the problem. “But, the federal government is in charge of every place.
Now, if the federal government stamps on the ground that it is the property of the federal government because, Delta denied it at a point they( federal government) even have no right to collect, because there are no allegations that any money from federal government was looted.
“It is something that their lawyers will have to sort out eventually. I believe that the money should go back to Delta state. “From the evidence from the federal government, it is Delta State money and the federal government has won the case.
Since Ibori and his people, who are denying it in order to save Ibori are no longer there, they should give the people who own the money their money. That’s my view.”
While aligning with Sagay and Ahamba, Olorundare said it may be expedient for the federal government to monitor the application of the cash by the Delta State government.
He said: “To be honest with you, there is a lot of conflicts there. At a point in time, Delta State said its money is not missing and Ibori looted; he took it to UK. UK now returned it but you (Delta State) said your money was not looted. “So, bringing it back, it means the money belongs to Nigeria.
So who will receive it on behalf of Nigeria from UK? It is the Nigerian government that would, but then if one goes by that contradiction, one would go by the contradiction that the president who said several times that Abacha didn’t steal and we have been receiving the Abacha loot even till date.
“If you now receive the money, it has to go to Delta, because it was their money that was looted. Ibori didn’t serve at the federal level.
“If the money now returns to Delta, it will mean whatever project they want to use it for, they can use it there but maybe the federal government who gave undertaking to the UK government will have to monitor it so that, it is not re-looted”.
