Former Delta gov, Ibori, extradited to UK

Posted by admin Latest Politics, National Politics, Top Stories Friday, April 15th, 2011

Ex-governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, has been extradited from Dubai to the United Kingdom.

Online medium, Saharareporters, said Ibori was extradited on Friday by the Interpol.

The report said Ibori had tried to escape extradition through ‘a series of complex legal manipulations.’

It said the former governor was re-arrested on Thursday night in his Dubai mansion and taken to an extradition processing centre from where he was later flown to the UK.

He was expected to have arrived in London at about 1 pm local time (2 pm Nigerian 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 alleged accomplices, including his wife, Nkoyo; his sister, Christine Ibie-Ibori; and an associate, Udoamaka Okoronkwo (nee Onuigbo), are already spending prison terms in various jail houses in the UK.

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.

Confirming the development to SATURDAY PUNCH on Friday, spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said, “The eventual extradition of former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori from Dubai to UK today (Friday) is a welcome development and a warning signal to others who do everything to slow down the wheel of criminal prosecution in Nigeria that justice can only be delayed, it can never be denied.”

Also confirming it to SATURDAY PUNCH, the spokesman for the British High Commission, Mr. Hooman Nouruzi, said in an SMS, “Yes, Mr. Ibori has been extradited to the UK from the UAE. He is in the custody of the Metropolitan Police Service.”

-Punchwp_posts