Divergent views have continued to trail the Federal Government’s desire to appropriate the £4.2m recovered from Britain that former Governor James Onanefe Ibori and his associates looted. Indeed, groups and individuals are rising in support of repatriating the money to Delta State.
Already, a human rights activist and lawyer, Chief Malcom Omirhobo has sued the Federal Government at a Federal High Court, Abuja, where he prayed the court to declare that by provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, the people and government of Delta State were entitled to the £4.2m (about N2.2b) recovered by the British government from the former jail bird and his associates.
While Lagos-based lawyer, Okoroani Nwani, who described Omirhobo case as a welcomed development, because “the action of the Federal Government and National Executive Council represents an injustice against the people of Delta State and Nigerian public in Delta State,” his Abuja-based colleague, Joseph Ekwe, insists that the suit will expand the country’s legal jurisprudence.
But a former dean, Faculty of Law, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Prof. Agu Gab Agu, begged to differ, pointing out that even though Ibori become Delta State governor, it had now not been set up that the money turned into removed from the state’s treasury hence resorting to court over custody of the said looted finances was useless. His view is shared by using a Lagos-based totally endorse and member of the Justice Reform Project, Charles Candide-Johnson (SAN) corroborates Agu, noting that Omirhobo’s fit against the Federal Government is an idle hazard, and the outcries about the cash “farcical and cynical.”
Other respondents in Omirhobo’s match are the Federal Executive Council (FEC); the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF); the Accountant General of the Federation; the Minister of Finance; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Delta State government, the Attorney General of Delta State, and the Accountant General of the nation.
The applicant is asking the courtroom to claim that the kingdom’s constitution is the ultimate law and its provisions have a binding pressure on all of the respondents, and all individuals and authorities for the duration of the u . S . A ..
According to him, Nigeria is a federation with 36 federating states, 768 nearby councils, and a capital territory, which constitutes the 3 degrees of presidency, with their respective constitutional responsibilities to execute for the financial development and wellbeing of human beings inside their domain..
Omirhobo needs the court to maintain that Delta State as one of the federating devices with 25 neighborhood councils is entitled to revenue allocation from the Federation Account to enable it discharge her constitutional duties to the human beings.
He also prayed the courtroom to claim that the seized finances belong to the human beings of Delta State, and represent revenue that can be obtained by the Nigerian Federation and paid into her Consolidated Revenue Fund.
The applicant therefore prayed the court to claim that the signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Nigeria and the UK authorities in recognize of the £4.2 million recovered with the aid of the British authorities from the ex-governor of Delta State is subordinate to the Nigerian Constitution.
Also contained within the litany of prayers, is “a announcement that the Federal Government cannot receive the said £4.2 million recovered loot from the British government without paying it into the Federation Account.
He additionally requested for “a assertion of this courtroom that the first, second,3rd, 4th, 5th and sixth respondents can not use up the said recovered loot of £4.2 million belonging to Delta State in the execution of completing the second Niger Bridge, Lagos/Ibadan and Abuja/Kano Expressway initiatives under the coordination of the Nigerian Investment Authority (NSIA), with out appropriation,” as well as another “announcement of this court that it is unsuitable, unlawful, unlawful and unconstitutional for the respondents to expropriate, confiscate, commandeer, appropriate, sequestrate and/or convert the £4.2 million recovered loot belonging to the applicant and the people of Delta State to Nigerian wealth for the benefit of different Nigerians, and thereby depriving the 7th respondent (Delta) of her constitutional obligations to the people of the kingdom, and also robbing the human beings of the economic improvement and nicely-being.”
He, consequently, asked the court docket to declare that it's miles wrong, unlawful, illegal and unconstitutional for the first, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and sixth respondents to use up the recovered loot for initiatives other than the ones which are useful for the financial improvement and health of the humans of Delta State.
In addition, the applicant wants the court to mention that the Federal Government acted unlawfully by failing to return the cash to Delta State as monies recovered from ex-governors of Bayelsa and Plateau states from overseas had been back to the people and governments of Bayelsa and Plateau.
Apart from maintaining FG’s decision illegal, the applicant also wants the court docket to restrain it from tampering with and/or disbursing, using, utilizing or expending the recovered £four.2 million and an order compelling it to transfer the budget to Delta State to allow her perform her constitutional obligations to her human beings in addition to any further order or orders as the court docket may additionally deem in shape to make.
In a 71-paragraph affidavit in assist of the originating summon, deposed to via the applicant himself, he averred that he is a Nigerian from Otor-Iwhreko, Ughelli, Ughelli North Local Council of Delta State, and swore that he's a member of the Human Rights Law Committee and the Probono Committee of the International Bar Association, who has filed several public hobby suits in defence of the Nigerian Constitution; hobby of the poor; the susceptible; the needy; the illiterate; the uninformed; the invulnerable; the incarcerated, and the unrepresented.
He averred that instead of using the monies accruing to the Delta from Revenue Allocation from the Federation Account and internally generated sales to develop it and its people, the former governor of the state, Chief Ibori, looted billions of pounds, greenbacks and naira from the coffers of the kingdom for himself, pals and family individuals, which he stashed away in overseas countries.
He swore: “That the stated ex-governor changed into arrested by the Metropolitan Police of Britain and charged to court docket for fraud, forgery and corruption and become eventually convicted in 2012 with the aid of a courtroom of law within the United Kingdom for his deeds for thirteen years and after serving his time period, he turned into launched.
“That it is in the public area and replete within the media that the British Government on March 9, 2021 renounced some thing to do with money received thru illegal activity or corruption and resolved to go back £4.2 million recovered from friends and circle of relatives individuals of the stated former governor in more than one days to the first respondent.
“That the 3rd respondent disclosed that the 2nd respondent has directed that the £four.2 million to be back and the loot be deployed to finish the second one Niger Bridge, Lagos/Ibadan and Abuja/Kano Expressway Projects underneath the coordination of the Nigerian Investment Authority (NSIA).
NWANI while siding with Chief Omirhobo, the human beings of Delta State and the Nigerian public in Delta State stated: “The Federal Government does now not have the right to convert Delta State’s cash to its very own use. The movement of the Federal Government is likewise discriminatory within the sense that the Federal Government once recovered monies looted via the ex-governor of Bayelsa State, from the Bayelsa people and returned it to the Bayelsa State authorities. So, why must the Delta State case be distinctive?” He asked.
Another legal professional, Inno Nwafor said: “There is no doubt that the fund in question turned into looted from the treasury of the Delta State authorities and recovered with the aid of the UK government. The Federal Government is laying declare to the fund. But I think that during view of the reputation of Delta State as a federating unit of Nigeria, the nation has the constitutional right to be entitled to the fund.”
Nwafor, who stated that the money ought to not be given to the Federal Government, referred to Section one hundred twenty (1) of the 1999 Constitution, which talks approximately Consolidated Revenue Funds as the basis for his function.
ACCORDING to Ekwe, the Constitution of Nigeria is splendid and therefore the MoU signed through the British and Nigerian governments on how the money would be expended is subordinate to Nigerian constitution.
“Nigeria runs a monetary federalism in which monies allotted to each state government is for use to uplift and improve lives of the human beings of the states via their governments which might be constitutionally bound to provide services for their human beings,” said he.
“To allow the Federal Government to capture the cash will quantity to illegal obstruction of Delta State government from discharging her constitutional obligations to her people, and the deprivation of the people’s development in their trendy of residing.”
Another attorney, Samuel Momoh, who commended Omirhobo for his dogged and resilient fight for justice using the apparatus of regulation, declared that the authorities has no claims whatsoever over the money, notwithstanding the reality that its corporations were to a massive quantity, instrumental inside the recuperation of the said loot.
“My role is sponsored up by Article 35 of the United Nations Convention this is ratified between the United Kingdom and Nigeria respectively, which permits proceeds recovered from corruption to be expended at the victims. It remains indubitable that the sufferer on this trouble is Delta State whose money turned into siphoned.
“I consequently put up, with greatest recognize that the Federal Government having allocated to Delta State, its a part of the month-to-month allocation, has end up functus officio (of no further professional authority, or legal effect) over the said sources,” he insisted.
But Candide-Johnson, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who sees Omirhobo’s healthy farcical and cynical, argued that the budget have been looted and confiscated by the UK government, pursuant to its own fraud and money laundering laws, for which the United Kingdom, out of its personal magnanimity determined to go back to Nigeria.
“The case changed into deserted in London without participation through either Delta State, or the Nigerian Government. The manner of confiscation of this fund was from UK regulation and United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), which inspires states to barter between themselves to return confiscated finances to the ones who have been victimised.
“And MOU has been signed with the British authorities according with international law because the UK authorities, much like many others, and the Swiss government in recognize of the Abacha loot do no longer have confidence in admire of how the money might be utilised if sent like that. If the cash goes back to Delta State, which stated no cash became lacking, it will in all likelihood be stolen again,” he stated.
He similarly argued that the MoU is binding at the sovereign stage, stating that Delta State government isn't a sovereign country, and did now not make any complaint approximately its cash being stolen.
“So, crying wolf at this overdue stage is simply politics, idle and silly as some distance as I’m involved. The fund is not appropriated. It is proceeds of crime forfeited to the United Kingdom government and paid underneath an MoU. The UK will now not release it to Delta State. They are just making a noise,” he declared.
AGU who opined that it turned into fallacious to go back the money to Delta State because it has now not been established that it got here from its treasury, introduced: “I do now not proportion inside the submission that it's miles a count number for the court. Let’s look at it this manner. Who pursued the money and what agreement did they enter? If the Federal authorities had entered into an agreement with the British government on how the money may be shared, could all people have stopped them? It is simply fairness. Who trailed the money, and who even knew wherein it got here out from? Remember these are assets connected to Ibori, and they have been offered because they have been suspected to be proceeds of crime. How do wherein it got here from, or is it because Ibori is from Delta State? Even in case you start to have a look at that logic, you may agree that maximum of the cash came from the federal pool. They didn’t say it became Ibori’s cash. The point is that the Federal Government need to be advised that after such matters manifest, it have to provide a larger chew of the money to the state, wherein it is assumed to had been taken away from. If Ibori have been attempted and he said it's miles from the treasury of Delta State, you can now say you need to replace it.
A Civil Rights Lawyer, Olu Omotayo, in his submission said: “The Delta State authorities is the consultant of the kingdom, and for the gain of Delta human beings. It is meant to take up the task and institute an movement in opposition to the Federal Government for the go back of the cash because of their state.
“The cash is what Ibori looted at the same time as he was in government and the UK authorities said that it came in due to the fact the cash turned into unaccounted for. He embezzled the money and Ibori did not act in some other capability than the governor of Delta State at that point in question. So if the UK government had suspected that the money was looted from the general public treasury, it's far the treasury of the Delta State authorities, and not that of the Federal Government. He did not maintain any federal office,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment