Delta State government has said it has not received from the £4.2m looted by a former governor of the state, James Ibori, which the Federal Government recently repatriated from the United Kingdom.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris, had disclosed on Tuesday before the House of Representatives Committee on Recovered Assets, in Abuja, that the funds had been released to the state.
But the state government, in a statement by Mr. Olisa Ifeajika, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, made available to THE WITNESS, on Wednesday, however noted that the money had not arrived in its coffers, though “the state is in contact with the Federal Government, especially the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, on the issue.”
It expressed appreciation for the disposition of the Federal Government in releasing the funds to the state, and assured that it would acknowledge receipt of the funds when it arrives.
The government also assured the Federal Government and Deltans that the funds would, in tandem with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration’s hallmark, be judiciously deployed especially in the completion of projects it had earlier intimated the Presidency about.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), had stated that Delta State will not benefit from the recovered loot.
Malami had said that the state was not captured in the agreements signed with the British Government, which was a precondition for the release of the money.
The minister had stressed that Nigeria would execute other projects with the fund other than the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway and the Second Niger Bridge, which had been listed in the agreement.