James Ibori, the former governor of Delta state, was finally extradited to United Kingdom today after the London Metropolitan police foiled his latest plot to flee from the United Arab Emirates through a series of complex legal manipulations he hatched in Dubai.
James Ibori, the former governor of Delta state, was finally extradited to United Kingdom today after the London Metropolitan police foiled his latest plot to flee from the United Arab Emirates through a series of complex legal manipulations he hatched in Dubai.
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Ibori was re-arrested last night in his Dubai mansion and taken to an extradition processing center from where he was later flown to the UK. He is expected arrive in London at about 1:00p.m. local time.
SaharaReporters learnt from UAE government sources that the former governor was accompanied by officers of the UK Metropolitan police Proceeds of Crimes Unit.
Ibori will face three separate trials in the UK relating to money laundering and theft. Some of his accomplices, including his wife, Theresa; his sister, Christine Ibie-Ibori; and a mistress, Udoamaka-Okoronkwo (nee Onuigbo), are already spending prison terms in various jail houses in the UK. Just over a week ago, on April 1, his UK lawyer, Bhadresh Gohil, was given a 10-year sentence. The sentence will run concurrently with a previous seven-year conviction.
Ibori's extradition was finally granted in December 2010 by the Court of Cessation in Dubai, but with the aid of Nigerian officials he made a series of attempts to escape from the UAE. Recently, in a secretly packaged deal, Ibori was granted bail from detention in Dubai, but a series of exposés from SaharaReporters frustrated his success.
SaharaReporters had also reported on the efforts of Goodluck Jonathan to have Ibori returned to Nigeria, where the government had previously helped him to escape conviction in a manipulated corruption trial. Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mohamed Adoke travelled to London several times to negotiate the deal but it was scuttled when SaharaReporters broke the story.
Ibori’s extradition marks a curious return to the scene of his earliest recorded crimes. As a worker in London, he was twice convicted for two criminal offences before he returned to Nigeria and went into the business full time as a politician.
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Coming on the day before Nigeria’s most important election since independence, this is a fortuitous story,” an analyst told SaharaReporters in Lagos today. “In a country where impunity has taken the place of justice, Ibori’s extradition from a foreign country to another is at once a description of the sadness of our past, a critical comment on our present and a warning about the future.”
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