Delta state governor Ifeanyi Okowa has written again asking President Muhammadu Buhari to release the £4.2 million Ibori loot to be spent on six projects in the state.
The governor in his second letter suggested that the £4,214,017.66 could be used to fund important road projects in Warri, Agbor, Abraka, Sapele, Igheli, Effurum and Asaba.
Recall that Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami disclosed on May 18 that the account of the federal government was credited with the naira equivalent of the £4,214,017.66 of on May 10.
Okowa in the letter addressed to the AGF opined that it would be a negation of precedent for the federal government to deploy the money on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Abuja-Kaduna Highway and the Second Niger Bridge.
The governor reminded the federal government of the procedure followed on recovered loot from former Plateau and Bayelsa governors Joshua Dariye and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, respectively.
Confirming the second letter to Buhari, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Olisa Ifejika 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.
”We have identified for them the Asaba-Illah-Ibiaja Highway; the deplorable Benin-Warri section of the East-West Road and the Agbor-Abraka-Sapele Highway.
“The on-going state projects are the dualisation of the Ugheli-Asaba Expressway; the Warri/Effurun Erosion Control and Warri/Uwvie Storm Water Control Erosion Road,” Ifejika explained.
