By Festus Ahon, ASABA
THE League of Professionals for Strategic Advocacy has said it would contest the decision of the Federal Government to confiscate the £4.2 million seized from the former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori that is being repatriated to Nigeria by the British Government.
The group in a statement by its Convener, Prince Obaro Unsafe and chairman, Mr Pius Mordi, frowned at what it described as the unilateral action of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami “that the Federal Government has taken possession of the money and will deploy it to fund some ongoing capital projects in various parts of the country”.
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The group maintained that: “The Attorney General’s unilateral action is illegal, immoral and a blatant attempt at appropriating the commonwealth of the people of Delta State.
“Justifying his decision, Mr Malami claimed that the law that was violated by Ibori was a federal law. According to him, the parties of interests involved in the repatriation of the funds were national and not sub-national governments.
“The Attorney General’s contention that the Federal Government is the victim of the crime, not Delta State, simply because the processes associated with the recovery were consummated by the Federal Government is a dubious interpretation of the law.
“By choosing to personally announce the grabbing by Aso Rock of the money about to be repatriated, Mr Malami sought to give the action a veneer of legality. He is wrong.
“Firstly, there is no discernible legal basis for his stance. As a subnational government, Delta State could not have entered negotiations with Great Britain, a sovereign state. Only the Federal Government can negotiate with another sovereign state. In effect, Malami’s argument that since ‘the processes associated with the recovery were consummated by the Federal Government’, then it becomes…
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