An Abuja Federal High Court will on Friday (today) decide the ownership of the controversial $15m Ibori bribe money between the Federal Government and Delta State.
The $15m was said to have been received by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from an undisclosed agent of the former Delta State Governor James Ibori in 2007 as a bribe to compromise its investigation.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole had on July 10, 2013, adjourned to today to deliver judgment in the legal dispute over the ownership of the bribe money.
The cash has been kept in the strongroom of the Central Bank of Nigeria as an unclaimed property since August 2007, but a dispute over its rightful owner ensued after Justice Kolawole on July 24, 2012 granted an interim order forfeiting the cash to the Federal Government.
Now the Federal Government, through the EFCC wants the court to make a final order to grant it ownership of the money but the Delta State Government filed an application, claiming that the money actually belonged to it.
Delta State wants the court to return the money to its coffers, saying that it wants to use it to provide infrastructure in the state.
But the Federal Government said it would keep the money in a consolidated revenue fund for the people of Nigeria.
In arguing that the court should uphold its claim to the cash, the Federal Government said Delta State had already washed its hands of the $15m when it resisted investigations into corruption allegations against Ibori by deposing to an affidavit stating that it had not lost any money.
