Former Delta State Governor Ibori to face Extradition to UK as Dubai Court Rules



Former Delta State Governor James Onanefe Ibori.



HE sought to escape from justice. And for months, he thought he had found a safe haven from the wrath of the law in Dubai.  

But yesterday marked the beginning of the end for former Delta State Governor James Onanefe Ibori. It is the end of his alleged attempt to flee from justice while it is the beginning of his accounting for his alleged misdeeds while he was the helmsman in Delta.  

A United Arab Emirates Court of Cassation in Dubai yesterday ruled that Ibori should face trial for money laundering, forgery, credit card fraud and grand theft charges. For these, the court okayed the extradition of Ibori to the United Kingdom (UK).

The ruling followed a similar decision by the Court of First Instance in Dubai, which ordered Ibori’s extradition to the UK last October.

UK authorities have successfully prosecuted Ibori’s sister, Christine Ibie-Ibori; his mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo (nee Onuigbo) on those charges. Both women are serving jail terms in a UK prison.

Ibori’s wife, Theresa Nkoyo, had also been convicted in the UK of similar offences while his UK-based lawyer, Bhadresh Gohil, last week pleaded guilty in the V-Mobile shares fraud and money laundering case in the UK.

UK officials said they expected Ibori to be flown to the UK soon.
Ibori has remained in jail in Dubai as he contests his extradition to the UK. He reportedly received recently a visit from Senator James Manager (PDP, Delta South), who confided in associates that he was shocked to see how diminished Ibori has become in his Dubai jail, where he addresses even low-level prison guards with unaccustomed courtesy.

Manager was a commissioner in the Ibori government between 2003 and 2007, and has stood by his former boss through his ordeal. When Ibori was acquitted by Justice Marcel Awokulehin last December, Manager celebrated publicly. “This is one man who has written his name in gold in the infrastructural development of the state,” he said of Ibori. “As somebody who has walked very closely with him, this is one of my happiest days.”

Ibori’s recent travail started in April, when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) made their appeal to Ibori to surrender himself for questioning over new allegations of corruption and money laundering during the period he was the governor (1999-2007).

But the former governor, who has reportedly filed a N10 billion (approximately $67 million) libel and defamation lawsuit against the EFCC for declaring him wanted, refused to honour the appeal.

Ibori’s counsel indicated that his client would not make himself available to the EFCC until a court has decided his case.

The anti-graft agency in its petition accused the former governor of quite a lot of things, especially the diversion of the shares of the Delta State government in Oceanic Bank International to guarantee a N44 billion loan in Intercontinental Bank for a private company called Ascot, which is allegedly linked to him.

The EFCC, according to its spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said a petition was brought by a group known as the Delta Elders and Stakeholders’ Forum, who alleged that Ibori directed that the shares be sold to offset part of the loan already granted the company.

He said the allegations against Ibori were new, contrary to claims by Ibori’s lawyers that the allegations had already been investigated.
He reiterated that Ibori remained on the wanted list and until he was found, there would be an intensive manhunt underway by the security agencies.

He later escaped to Dubai, after he was declared wanted by EFCC for refusal to honour its invitation, where he was admitted on bail, which was later revoked by the United Arab Emirates authority.

A Federal High Court sitting in Asaba on June 28, 2010 also rejected an application he filed praying the court to stop the EFCC from inviting him for questioning or arresting him.

Trial judge, Ibrahim Buba, in his ruling maintained that the EFCC had not violated any law by asking Ibori to appear before it and affirmed that the court lacked jurisdiction to stop a statutory body from arresting anybody in connection with a criminal act.

Buba faulted one of the premises of Ibori’s application for a preventive order; namely that he was being haunted by the anti-graft agency over matters which had already been resolved by the court when it quashed the 170-count charge of money laundering preferred against Ibori.  The judge stated that the application before him did not disclose any charge by the EFCC and that it would amount to a waste of time to pontificate on a matter that was not before the court.