Updated: £4.2m Ibori’s money: AGF recants, says FG yet to remit money to Delta

*PDP slams state APC for alleged misinformation

*Finance minister denies knowledge of recovered ex-gov’s cash

Andrew Orolua, Tom Okpe (Abuja) and Nosa Akenzua (Asaba)

Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), Alhaji Ahmed Idris, has said that the £4,214,017.66 pounds recovered from Ibori’s associates has not been returned to Delta State where the money was emanated from, contrary to his earlier claim.

“For now, no money has been returned to Delta State,” he said.

Mr. Idris had on Tuesday while defending government position on recovered loots , told a House of Representatives Committee in Abuja that money returned to the Nigerian government by the United Kingdom, had been remitted to Delta from where it was adjudged judicially to have been stolen by associates of Chief James Ibori, a former governor of the state.

Delta State Government immediately reacted to the development on Wednesday and said that it has yet to receive the money.

In a late Wednesday statement, the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) clarified its position.

OAGF said: “The issue of the £4.2m Ibori Loot has not been properly resolved.”

The OAGF’s director of Information, Press and Public Relations, Henshaw Ogubike, in the statement, said the money “is still being awaited, after which the issues around it will be resolved before further action is taken.

“For now, no money has been returned to Delta State,” he said.

This explanation, he said, was without prejudice to the proceedings at the House of Representatives during which Mr Idris “was only making general comments about recoveries relating to State Governments.”

Mr Idris said Tuesday before the House of Representatives Committee that the money has been returned to the Delta State Government.

He also said such recovered monies, stolen from states, are returned to the appropriate states.

The £4.2 million pounds had been lodged in UK accounts.

Mr. Ibori and some of his associates were convicted in the UK for money laundering for which he has served his term but is still challenging the UK Court over his conviction and seizure of his property and money.

He is back in Nigeria where he is actively involved in the politics of Delta State as a kingmaker and godfather.

Attorney General of the federation and minister of Justice Abubakar Malami (SAN) said UK government returned the money to Federal government on May 9, following an agreement both countries entered into in March .

The brewing controversy over the returned money seems to have begun with the agreement that the federal government entered into with the United Kingdom wherein tthe latter tied the fund to Lagos -Ibadan Highway, Second Niger Bridge and Abuja -Kaduna -Kano Highway as projects it should be expended on.

Meanwhile, Delta State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said that the take-back of an earlier false claim by AGF Idris whose office has since recanted by putting the record straight that no £4.2m was paid to Delta State Government has confirmed the position of PDP that the All Progressives Congress (APC) Publicity team is headed by an unkind and bad-tempered fellow.

PDP’s State Publicity Secretary, Dr. Ifeanyi M. Osuoza who made the declaration in a statement in Asaba, said the repudiation of the claim which the APC attack dogs led by Mr. Sylvester Imonina latched on to deride the person of His Excellency, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, Governor of Delta State and calling him unprintable names has further exposed the propagandists as ill-mannered, unrefined, and who would go to any length to do the unimaginable to propagate lies against Dr. Okowa and his administration.

Dr. Osuoza said: “We commend the nobility of Deltans who held themselves together when APC’s ‘nattering nabobs of negativism’ spewed their distorted and deceptive information of a non-existent payment to Delta State, and for which without double-checking for the fact of the matter, they unabashedly, with gusto rushed into conclusions.

“Their mission, which is in consonance with their sworn mindset to tarnish the image of the governor, his administration, and the PDP evidently turned out to be ill-fated, as the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris withdrew his earlier claim in a statement saying: “The issue of the £4.2m loot has not been properly resolved.

The money is still being awaited, after which the issues around it will be resolved before further action is taken. For now, no money has been returned to Delta State.”

“Has Mr. Imonina, APC’s chief officer in misinformation and disinformation heard of the above clarification by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation?

A person of character and good conscience would have also recanted and withdrawn all the false theatrics made in the name of a Press Release by now just like the OAGF has done?

But no, not those who have sworn to at all cost bring down Governor Okowa, his administration, and paint the well-loved PDP black. We laugh at their foolishness and indiscretion.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has queried AGF Idris over illegal withdrawals from recovered funds’ accounts.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, told the lawmakers on Thursday that she had no clue concerning the recovered £4.2m Ibori cash from the United Kingdom.

Idris and Ahmed were being questioned by the House Ad-hoc Committee on Assessment and Status of All Recovered Loots Movable and Immovable Assets from 2002 to 2020 by Agencies of the Federal Government of Nigeria, for Effective Efficient Management and Utilisation, headed by Adejoro Adeogun.

On the illegal withdrawals from the recovered loot accounts, reference was made to the sum of N19 billion, which was withdrawn from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) recovery account.

Idris, the AGF listed several recovery accounts including that of the EFCC, trying to justify the withdrawals from these separate recovery accounts, insisting that they were all linked by the Treasury Single Account, hence technically an extension of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).

He stressed that withdrawals from the accounts were made with the appropriate approvals.

Members of the committee however, disagreed with this position, saying there was no basis for such withdrawals as they were not appropriated for.

They insisted that any withdrawal must be from the CRF and must be backed by law, adding that the AGF should be held responsible for possible violation of the constitution and extant financial regulations.

“Of what essence is appropriation if you can just dip your hands and take money from government accounts,” a member of the committee, Wole Oke, querried.

“It’s constitutionally wrong to withdraw money that was not from CRF and not approved by the National Assembly.”

The lawmakers argued that no approval from any authority could supersede the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria adding that it was ‘illegal’ withdrwals according to findings.

Members of the Committee butressed that withdrawals from the recovery accounts could not be traced in any Appropriation Act, and the National Assembly was not aware.

Finance Minister Ahmed, agreed with the House members on this, saying it was wrong to take money from any other government account that was not the CRF.

“Even then, any money taken from the account must be appropriated for by the National Assembly,” Ahmed opined.

She said though there is provision in the budget for recovered loot, they have to be moved to the CRF first before it can be used for anything else.

“If there were instances where money is taken directly from the recovery accounts, then they were wrong.”

Speaking on the status of the £4.2 million Ibori loot from the United Kingdom, Ahmed said she was yet to get any information on the recovery.

“On the £4.2 million I am still waiting to get information about this recovery. I have read in the media that the recovery has been made.

But what has happened in the past is that the Attorney General would write to Mr President and report that recovery then, give advice on what needs to be done or give advice based on the negotiations that they made during the process of the recovery.

“The instruction will be conveyed to us. But up till now, I have not received any formal conveyance, any formal information written in respect of this £4.2 million, so, I cannot say whether it is a Federal Government fund or a state fund. It depends on the advice that would come,” she said.

Before adjourning sitting to the following day, the committee directed the AGF and Finance Minister to furnish it with a summary of all transactions made from the recovered loot accounts since 2002.

The committee also invited the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to appear before it on June 3, 2021 to properly reconcile all recovery accounts.