A simmering debate has issued from the controversial $15 million cash allegedly used by the former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, to bribe Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The debate was spawn by the recent actions of the EFCC, the federal government and the Attorney General of the Federation on one hand and the Delta State government on the other.

The story broke in 2007 when Ribadu alleged that Ibori had approached him through a middle man with the humungous amount to compromise investigations on the former Governor of Delta State by the anti-graft agency.

That allegation kicked up a whirlwind of brickbats. Ibori, the man in the centre of the storm, had since been convicted in the United Kingdom for sundry financial crimes and is currently doing his jail term. In convicting Ibori, the UK government said it would remit all recovered monies from Ibori and his cohorts to the coffers of Delta State.  Even though this was not the basis for the argument in the UK court, the Judge of Southwark Crown Court 9 in London, Justice Anthony Pitts, ruled that the monies recovered from Ibori should be returned to Delta State. That was on April 17, this year.

On the heels of the judgement by the UK court, the federal government, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the EFCC, either flying a kite or in a deliberate act of mischief approached an Abuja High Court through an exparte motion (something strongly repudiated by the leadership of the judiciary) seeking to compel the court to make a pronouncement declaring the forfeiture of the said amount to the federal government. Strangely, the plaintiffs got their wish granted but only temporarily.  Justice Gabriel Kolawole  did not only uphold  the federal government’s claim that the said sum, “if left untouched and unspent in the state it was kept in the strong room (of Central Bank of Nigeria) since April 2007, may eventually be destroyed, defaced, mutilated and become useless”, he also granted the EFCC’s request for “an interim order forfeiting the $15m being an unclaimed property in possession of the CBN to the Federal Government, pending the publication and hearing of the motion on notice for the final forfeiture order of the said property.”

Kolawole thereupon ordered that the interim order should be published in the newspaper “for anyone who is interested in the property to appear before the court to show cause within 14 days why the final order of forfeiture should not be made in favour of the Federal Government of Nigeria.” September 17, this year has been fixed to hear the motion on notice for the final forfeiture of the said sum.

To the undiscerning mind, the case against Ibori in Nigeria is different from the case in which he was convicted in the UK. But they are not. The case against Ibori at Southwark Crown Court 9 in London for which he was convicted is ipsilateral with the case against him in Nigeria. Both are criminal cases bordering on financial heist against the same person who was governor of Delta State when both offences were said to have been committed.

It is therefore strange why the Nigerian government and in particular the EFCC would approach the court to action the forfeiture of the $15 million to the federal government rather than to Delta State government. The manner the money was offered and for what purpose it was offered may be controversial but the source of the money should not be embroiled in the same web of controversy.

Clearly and unambiguously, the money belongs to the good people of Delta State and should be returned to them. It would be immoral for any organisation or individual order than Delta State to lay claim to the money.  No law is shorn of morals. This was the wisdom of the UK court in ruling that all recovered monies from Ibori would be returned to the state which he was governor when the offence was said to have been committed.  Neither the EFCC nor the Attorney-General should attempt to re-invent the wheel or conjure a weird legal interpretation of a simple matter. The action of the UK court to return all recovered monies to Delta State, ipso facto, justifies the claim of Delta State through its Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Charles Ajuyah, that the $15 million be returned to its bona fide owner, in this case, Delta State.

Besides, there is a precedence. If the EFCC pretends not to notice the nexus between the action of the UK court and the matter of the $15 million bribe money, what about the cases of former Governor of Plateau State, Joshua Dariye and his Bayelsa State counterpart, DSP Alamieyeseigha both of whom were stripped of their assets and monies which were subsequently returned to their respective state governments. The same should apply in the case at hand. As at April 2007 when the allegation broke, Ibori was still governor of Delta State. It is enough injustice in Nigeria that public office holders steal from the common till and impoverish the citizenry but it would amount to gross injustice and extreme wickedness if the conspiracy to rob the people of Delta State of their legitimate wealth succeeds. The Attorney General of the Federation should intervene in this needless judicial rigmarole. He should do the noble, which is, return the money to Delta State.

Temisan Oviasojie writes from Benin City