James Ibori Released From UK Prison

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Former governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori has completed his prison terms in the United
Kingdom. But he is yet to be a free man, as he was immediately re-arrested.
TheNEWS learnt that Ibori jailed 13 years in April 2012 by a Southwark Crown court in London was
released by prison authorities on 22 January.
He was released from Her Majestys Prison in Bedford, outside of London, where he finished his
prison term. He was also initially at the Long Lartin Prison in Worcestershire.
He is out of here, a prison source at Bedford confirmed on Tuesday night.
Our sources said Ibori was re-arrested to face another charge, which borders on the confiscation of
his ill-gotten assets, estimated to be about 250 million pounds. The case initially billed for May, will
now come up in June, sources told us this afternoon.
We cannot however confirm Iboris new prison.

Fifty-seven year old Ibori was jailed for using UK

financial institutions to launder hundreds of
millions of pound sterling he stole from public
funds in Delta State.
His journey to jail began with his arrest On 13
May 2010 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates under
Interpol arrest warrants, issued from United
Kingdom courts and enacted by the Metropolitan
Police.
He had earlier made a mockery of Nigerias legal system, walking away free from the multi-billion
fraud charge levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, including the
$15 million bribe he offered the then EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu.
Iboris case and extradition became one of the longest, most complex and expensive operations
mounted by Scotland Yard in recent years.
Prosecutors alleged that companies owned by Ibori and his family were beneficiaries from the sale of
state assets, including shares in Econet, a GSM telephone operator, as well as crude oil deliveries.

Before his conviction, UK juries two years earlier found

James Iboris sister, Christine Ibie-Ibori and his mistress,
Udoamaka Okoronkwo, guilty on counts of money
laundering, in a verdict delivered at the Southwark
Crown Court, London.
On 27 February 2012, Ibori himself was docked, accused
of stealing US$250 million from the Nigerian public
purse. He pleaded guilty to ten counts of money
laundering and conspiracy to defraud. Among
possessions confiscated were a house in Hampstead, north London, for 2.2million, a property in
Shaftesbury, Dorset for 311,000, A 3.2m mansion in Sandton, near Johannesburg South Africa , a
fleet of armoured Range Rovers valued at 600,000,a 120,000 Bentley Continental GT, A MercedesBenz Maybach bought for 407,000 cash, that was shipped direct to his mansion in South Africa
After the sentencing hearing, Sue Patten, head of the Crown Prosecution Service central fraud
group, said it would bid to confiscate the assets Ibori had acquired his riches at the expense of the
some of the poorest people in the world.
Also jailed with him apart from his sister and mistress were his wife, Theresa Nkoyo Ibori, his
lawyer, Bhadresh Gohil and his financial advisors, Daniel McCann and Lambertus De Boer.
While in prison, Ibori continued to exercise a lot of influence on the politics of his Delta state, with
the present governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, regarded as one of his disciples.
Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, two term governor of the state, who succeeded him in 2007 is his uncle.
Born in Oghara, 57 years ago, the young James Onanefe Ibori was educated at Baptist High school,
now Oghareki Grammar School. From there, he went to the University of Benin, where he studied
economics and statistics. After his university education, he moved to the United Kingdom, where he
worked at Wickes DIY, married his wife, Theresa and tainted his record with two convictions for
theft and credit card fraud, that were to later haunt his political career in Nigeria.
He became governor of Delta state in 1999 and held forte for eight years.
TheNews