Former Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has reportedly asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to release his international passport to enable him travel abroad for medical reasons.
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Sources within the anti-graft agency said Okowa visited the EFCC office on Awolowo Road, Lagos, in connection with ongoing discussions over the release of the travel document, which has been in the custody of the commission since his arrest in November 2024.
A source familiar with the matter said the former governor was not arrested during the visit, but appeared at the Lagos office as part of the continuing investigation into allegations of financial misappropriation during his tenure as governor of Delta State.
“No, he was not arrested; he was at the commission’s Lagos office as part of the ongoing investigation into his case.
“Also, he made moves to secure the release of his international passport to attend to some medical issues abroad,” the source said.
It was, however, not immediately clear whether the former governor succeeded in retrieving the passport.
Efforts to obtain an official reaction from the EFCC were unsuccessful, as the commission’s spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, did not respond to calls as of the time of filing the report.
Okowa was arrested on November 4, 2024, and questioned at the Port Harcourt Zonal Directorate of the EFCC over allegations relating to the alleged diversion of ₦1.3 trillion in 13 per cent derivation funds received by Delta State from the Federation Account between 2015 and 2023.
The commission is also investigating allegations that the former governor failed to account for the funds, as well as another ₦40 billion allegedly used to acquire shares in UTM Floating Liquefied Natural Gas and a major commercial bank.
He was later granted bail after meeting the conditions set by the EFCC, but the commission retained his international passport as part of the investigation process.
Okowa, who governed Delta State from 2015 to 2023 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, has denied the allegations.
After his release, the former governor dismissed the claim that he diverted ₦1.3 trillion, arguing that such an amount could not have been personally taken by a state governor.
“To successfully take ₦1.3tn, it means you have to be taking between ₦16bn and ₦20bn every month into your pocket.
“I don’t even know if the President of this country will be able to do that, not to talk of the governor of Delta State.
“They have forgotten that the first three years we came into office — 2015, 2016 and 2017 — the money that was coming into the state was not even enough to pay salaries at all,” Okowa had said.
Efforts to obtain his reaction through one of his associates, Charles Aniagwu, were also unsuccessful.
Okowa was the vice-presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 general election, running alongside former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
In April 2025, he defected from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress alongside his successor, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, and other political figures in Delta State.
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