Delta State government remains adamant that the £4.2 million Ibori-linked loot must be used to execute projects in the Southsouth state.
The state government suggested that the money can be used for the funding of important road projects in Warri, Agbor, Abraka, Sapele, Igheli, Effurum and Asaba, the Delta state capital.
In its second letter requesting for the release of the £4,214,017.66 repatriated by the British Government to the Federal Government, the state maintained that the cash must come back to it.
On May 18, Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) Abubakar Malami, to whom the state directed its letter, said the Federal Government’s account was credited with the naira equivalent on May 10.
Delta Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s Chief Press Secretary (CPS) Olisa Ifejika, who confirmed the second letter, said: “There have been precedents. When such funds were recovered for Plateau and Bayelsa, they were given to the two states. So, the same rule should apply in Delta’s case.
“Now that it has been established that the money belongs to us, our Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice has written another letter to the AGF requesting that the money be spent on projects in Delta State.
“If the Federal Government does not want to release the cash, they can deploy it on their own (federal) projects which they have abandoned in our state and on the completion of on-going state projects.”
