Headlines
Britain returns £4.2m Ibori loot to Nigeria
BY NICHOLAS ABE
The British Government is to return to Nigeria £4.2 million of the funds so far recovered from friends and family members of former Delta State Governor, James Ibori.
British High Commission to Nigeria, Ms. Catriona Laing, who disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja, said the money was the first tranche of such planned returns.
Laing said the amount was retrieved from friends and family members of Ibori.
She noted the Ibori case was complicated and the United Kingdom authorities were still working on the total actual amount involved in the case.
READ: How we plan to spend $311M returned Abacha-stolen money
Laing, who spoke at a ceremony for the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Nigeria and Britain in Abuja, according to The Nation, assured more of such recoveries from the Ibori case would be returned to Nigeria in due course.
Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who signed for the country, said that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed that the returned loot be deployed to completion of the second Niger Bridge, the Lagos-Ibadan express way and the Abuja-Kano express way projects.
James Ibori was Governor of Delta State from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007.