Ibori regains freedom from London prison

Former governor of Delta State, James Ibori has regained his freedom from a London prison.

Ibori breath the air of freedom on Wednesday after spending close to four years behind bars for fraud.

He was accused of stealing US$250 million from the purse of his home state, Delta, where he was governor between 1999 and 2007.

Ibori pleaded guilty to ten counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud at the Southwark Crown Court, London and was sentenced on April 17, 2012, to 13 years in prison.

Ibori’s journey to prison started with a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) under its ex boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, filed by his kinsmen under the aegis of Delta State Elders and Stakeholders Forum, led by Chief Edwin Clark.

At first, the EFCC failed to act on the petition, a situation that led the Chief Clark group to partner with other activists and began to make open Ibori’s atrocities. They threatened to drag Ibori and EFCC before the court to ensure he was prosecuted.

Later in 2007, the Metropolitan Police raided the London offices of lawyer Bhadresh Gohil and discovered computer hard drives which contained details of a myriad off-shore companies Gohil ran for Ibori.

Based on these corruption allegations, the United Kingdom courts froze Ibori’s assets valued at about £17million in August 2007. His wife, Nkoyo, was afterward arrested at Heathrow Airport in London on November 1, 2007, in connection with the probe of the assets of her husband in the United Kingdom.

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Finally on December 12, 2007, the EFCC arrested Ibori at the Kwara State Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja.

The commission charged him, among other things, with theft of public funds, abuse of office, and money laundering. In addition, Ribadu claimed that Ibori tried to bribe him to drop the charges with a cash gift of $15million, which the former EFCC boss said he lodged with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as an exhibit.

However, on December 17, 2009, a Federal High Court sitting in Asaba, Delta State, discharged and acquitted Ibori of all 170 charges of corruption brought against him by EFCC.

But not giving up, the EFCC filed a notice of appeal against the December 17, 2009 judgment and began another round of investigations on Ibori.

In April 2010, Ibori’s case file was reopened just about three months after Goodluck Jonathan took over government.

The EFCC then came up with new allegations that Ibori embezzled N40 billion. The commission’s efforts to arrest him failed as Ibori reportedly fled from Abuja to Lagos and then to the creeks of Oghara, his homeland in the Niger Delta.

Armed militants were said to have guarded him while he was in his home town and at one time engaged security forces in a shoot out to ensure Ibori was never arrested.

The runaway politician was finally on May 13, 2010 arrested in Dubai, United Arab Emirates under Interpol arrest warrants, which was issued by a United Kingdom court and carried out by the Metropolitan Police.

After his extradition to UK, Ibori was later jailed for 13 years by the Southwark crown court in London haven admitted to a fraud of nearly £50m, described by the judge, Anthony Pitts as probably “ludicrously low”

His wife, Theresa Ibori; sister, Christine Ibori-Idie; mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo, and London-based solicitor Bhadresh Gohil were all convicted of money laundering with varying jail terms.

 

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