Falana also slammed President Muhammadu Buhari for accepting the conditions imposed by the US.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has said that the recent fund repatriated to the country must be shared among the three tiers of government.
Falana stressed that the money was looted from the federation account, which belongs to the three tiers and must be returned there.
Falana, who spoke in an interview with Channels Television monitored by SaharaReporters, also said that the United States of America does not have the power to determine how Nigeria should spend the recovered money.
Falana said, “This fund was stolen from the Federation Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria, so if the money is being repatriated, it has to go back to the Federation Account.
“The money does not belong to the Federal Government alone; it belongs to the three tiers of government. So, if money was taken away from the Federation Account and it’s been brought back, it must go to the Federation Account for sharing by the three tiers of government. It can’t be used for funding the budget of the Federal Government alone.
“As far as the law is concerned, this money does not belong to the Federal Government so it cannot be used by the FG.”
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said the US dictating how Nigeria should spend the recovered loot contravenes Section 12 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Falana also slammed President Muhammadu Buhari for accepting the conditions imposed by the US. [story_link align="left"]80366[/story_link]
He said, “The United States of America has no right under our laws to dictate to us how to spend our recovered money.
“It was insulting and embarrassing on the part of Buhari administration to have accepted the insult. The Federal Government should have told the American Government, ‘how dare you’.”
Falana added that if the Federal Government wants to use the money to fix some roads, it must be prepared to refund the part of that money belonging to state and local government in accordance to revenue allocation.
“If the Federal Government goes ahead to use the money, that will be against the provision of the constitution because the Federal Government cannot deploy or send money without appropriation so you will expect the Federal Government to have an appropriation because money has been budgeted for the Lagos-Ibadan road. There has to be appropriation and accountability,” Falana added.