Razaq Bamidele
The Nigeria Voters Assembly (VOTAS), a Pro-Democracy and Principal Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Organization, has commended the British Government for signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nigeria to return the sum of £4.2 million assets stolen by former Delta State Governor, James Ibori to Nigeria.
The VOTAS however condemned in strong terms, the Federal Government’s plan to utilise the money on federal projects, insisting that the money rightly belongs to the government and people of Delta State from where it was stolen.
The return of the money to Nigeria, according to the Assembly will clear the doubts of Nigerians about the true love of the British Government for Nigeria by discouraging the habit of siphoning public fund from Nigeria to Great Britain and bridging the big gap of trust deficit between the two countries.
It also warned the UK never to encourage its government and Businesses to serve as conduit pipe for looters to siphon proceeds of crimes.
The group in a press statement signed by its President, Comrade Mashood Erubami, stated that much as the recovery of the stolen fund might be part of the efforts of the current administration to fight corruption, it still frowned at the way the Minister of Justice have laid out for how the money would be used, condemning it in very strong terms that, “diverting the fund from Delta state into other regions will be an open conversion of what rightly and legally belongs to Delta State into projects that should never have benefitted from the proceeds of the loot.
“It is very wrong and unethical to use the returned stolen fund from UK Government for the construction of the second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano road, and Lagos-Ibadan Express road under any guise, it will be an open robbery of Peter to pay Paul.
“Originally, the three regions slated to benefit from these criminal diversions, had their budgets at the time the money was wickedly converted by the Ibori Government for sharing to his families from the budget of Delta State.
“It will amount to an injustice that must not be allowed to stay. Seeking the return of the money from UK and distributing it to regions that were never victims of the stolen fund will be a demonstrated instance of perverting justice. Delta State was the victim of corruption that diverted the money to the UK and it will be indefensible for the three regions mentioned by the Minister of Justice to become the beneficiaries!” the statement declared.
According to VOTAS, it has been clearly established that the money was wickedly stolen from Delta, denying the state from benefiting from the returned money will make the state suffer double robbery, so, it should justifiably be returned to the victim state after deducting all recovery expenses.
“The states where the money is being channelled by the Federal Government had already spent their own budgets as at the time that huge amount of £4.2 million was brazenly stolen by the ‘Son’ of Delta, and why then spending it to benefit these strange states for God’s sake? It will be the most open act of injustice, cheating and unfairness against the victim state,” the Assembly of Voters wondered.
Assembly of Voters emphasised, that the UK Government must insist on the money being paid into the covers of Delta state from where it was stolen to be used for the constructions of road, bridges and other visible development projects, if any justice would be seen to being done
The group finally called on the federal government to reverse the direction it has unilaterally channelled the money and put the money in a pool to be set aside for the construction of fine, visibly durable roads, Railways, Housing Estate, and Bridges to be strictly supervised by appointed civil society groups from outside the state.
This, according to VOTAS is expected to be done if only to set the standard for building infrastructural facilities for sustainable development and also shaming the Deltans who welcomed and celebrated Ibori’s return to Nigeria with glee, after completing his prison terms which no court was able to deliver in Nigeria as a result of judicial corruption that was ripe in the country !
