UK to return £4.2m Ibori loot to Nigeria

The British High Commission to Nigeria, Ms. Catriona Laing has said the British Government will return to Nigeria £4.2million being part of the funds so far recovered from friends and family members of former Delta Governor, James Ibori.

The disclosure was made on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, in Abuja. She said this was the first tranche of such planned returns.

According to Laing, what is currently being returned were retrieved from friends and family members of Ibori.

She noted the Ibori case is complicated and the United Kingdom authorities were still working on the total actual amount involved in the case, The Nations reports.

Laing, who spoke at a ceremony for the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between both countries in Abuja, 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, disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the returned loots be deployed to completion of the second Niger Bridge, the Lagos to Ibadan expressway and the Abuja to Kano expressway projects, The Nations reports.