INYC demands investment of £4.2m Ibori loot into abandoned FG projects in Itsekiri land

The Itsekiri National Youths Council, INYC, has factored into the raging National debate as to how the £4.2m Ibori loot about to the returned by the British Government should be invested, insisting the Federal Government should spend the money on abandoned projects in Itsekiri land and not look elsewhere.

President of INYC, Comrade Weyinmi Agbateyiniro, who made the demand in telephone interview today, Friday March 12, identified the abandoned Federal Government projects requiring funding in Itsekiri land, to include: “Dredging of the Escravos Bar for Warri and Koko Ports, the age-long Koko-Ogheye Road project, the Gas Revolution Industrial Park Project, GRIP in Ogidigben, electrification of communities in Escravos and Benin River axis as well as the Omadino-Okerenghigho-Escravos High way”.

Comrade Agbateyiniro, who argued that the position of Itsekiri youths was anchored on verifiable data, which shows that Itsekiri Nation is the highest producer of crude oil in Delta State and second largest in the country, posited that a large chunk of the recovered loot, was from crude oil proceeds derived from Itsekiri land.

While alluding to the point made by legal luminary, Femi Falana SAN that the recovered loot belongs to Delta State, the Itsekiri youth leader, identified ecological threat in Ode-Itsekiri, Ugborodo, Orere/Yanagho, Ogheye-Eghoroke and other Itsekiri coastline communities, as projects that demand urgent attention by the Federal and Delta State Governments, which the £4.2m should be invested in.

He disclosed that a crack team of legal practitioners, have been assembled by the INYC, with a view to exploring legal procedures to compel the federal government to spend the recovered loot on the aforesaid abandoned projects in Itsekiri land.

According to him, there was already precedence to the case on the ground, citing previous cases where looted funds by ex-Governors Joshua Dariye and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, were returned to the state governments of Plateau and Bayelsa, respectively.

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