We’ve written protest letter to Buhari over Ibori loot, says Okowa

Ifeanyi Okowa, governor of Delta, says his government has written a protest letter to President Muhammadu Buhari over the James Ibori loot recovered by Nigeria.

Okowa said this on Wednesday when he appeared on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme.

A few weeks ago, the UK made a commitment to return the £4.2 million loot recovered from Ibori, a former Delta governor, and his associates.

However, Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, had said the money should go to the federal government and not Delta state.

Commenting on the matter, Okowa said: “On our part, I have spoken with the attorney-general of the federation. My attorney-general went to have a meeting with him. We are working, and we are likely to come on the same page. We have written a formal letter of protest to Mr President.

“Ours is to convince the federal government to know that the money ought to return to Delta.”

He said if the money cannot be sent to Delta, it should be spent on projects in the state.

“If it’s not going to be returned directly to Delta, it must be spent on projects. We have made two critical suggestions: return the money for us to apply to projects that we feel will be right,” the governor said.

“But in that same letter — because we have seen the MoU signed with the British government, and we feel that we needed to approach it in this smart manner for us to be able to get the results — we have also put projects as an alternate that they can directly release the money to.”

Okowa also noted that his government does not believe in getting the money back through legal action.