The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Itse Sagay SAN, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to use the recovered Ibori loot to fund projects in Delta State.
He spoke after the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami said that the president directed that the returned loots be deployed for the completion of the second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and the Abuja to Kano rail line.
Sagay said that using the latest tranche of £4.2 million of Ibori loot to fund the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and the Abuja-Kano rail line would be unjust because the projects would have no direct impact on the people of Delta.
The legal luminary explained that since the money was taken from the Delta State Government coffers, it was only proper to use it for the development of the state.
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“The money came from Delta State. Naturally, it must go back to Delta State. I know the basis of the Federal Government argument. It is not just about the MoU. There is a provision in the EFCC Act which says all monies recovered should go to the Federal Government.
“I think they may want to rely on this. However, that law is void because a law cannot be based on transferring the assets belonging to one person to another. My advice is for the Federal Government to ask the Delta State government to nominate projects they want to undertake and then money would be released for the projects.
“The Ibori money being used for Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and others is unacceptable. You cannot use money from Delta State to fix projects in other places. The Federal Government can also use the money to fund its many projects in Delta State like the Benin-Warri road and many others,” Sagay told The Punch.