From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja 

Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, yesterday, said  the £4.2 million recovered from former Delta State governor, James  Ibori, has been returned by the Federal Government to the state.

Idris explained that the €4.2 million, which was repatriated to the county from the United Kingdom was returned  to Delta State, because some recoveries are for specific state governments.

The Accountant General stated this when he appeared before the House of Representatives’ Ad-hoc Committee probing the status of all recovered loots,  movable and immovable assets, from 2002 to 2020.

Idris, who was responding to questions from the committee chairman, Adejoro Adeogun, on the status of the Ibori loot said: “It has been paid to the state; it was paid to Delta state.” 

According to him, “any recovery arising from looted funds from a particular state goes to the state. The state governors would not even allow this to fly. They will take the Federal Government to court for holding their money. So we don’t joke and we don’t play with that. We pay them their money.”

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The panel also queried Idris over $23million withdrawal from one of the assets recovery account and on his inability to furnish it with details over €5,494,7043.71 credited into the Federal Government asset recovery  account on October 19, 2020.

Adeogun said the  €5 million was not not reflected in the balances  submitted to the panel.

However, Idris said “we made a submission which gives balances as at November and the balances as at September which reflected in a month later. So, they are not in the statement that we submitted. We have a statement for October which shows this balance and it is normal, you receive an amount in a given month and it is reflected in subsequent month,  particularly when forex is involved, not local currency.”

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami blamed the National Assembly for failing to pass the Proceed of Crime Bill into law.

Malami, who also appeared before the probe panel noted that the bill essentially provided a legal framework for the management of recovered assets.