HAPPENING NOW!!! James Ibori Back in UK Court
James Ibori, former governor of Delta state, is currently appearing before a UK court for his confiscation trial, TheCable is reporting.
The trial is presided over by David Tomlinson, a justice at Southwark Crown court.
He may be forced to forfeit his assets, worth about £250 million.
On Tuesday the former Delta state governor, who was released from a UK prison in December 2016, had said he will return to Nigeria “in a matter of days”.
A UK court convicted Ibori of fraud in 2012, and he was in prison until December, reports TheCable.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Tony Eluemunor, Ibori’s media assistant, said: “The British government had attempted to withdraw the case from court five, before Justice Garnham to either the Queen’s Bench Division or the Crown Court.
Ibori’s lawyers argued that this was a delay tactic by the Crown and the judge refused to grant the transfer, insisting that the case will remain in his Royal court of justice”.
“This time, the case before the court on Tuesday was to determine the amount of money Britain will pay Ibori as compensation for the illegal detention he was subjected to when the British prisons did not allow him to leave on the exact day his prison sentence ended in December last year, but detained him unlawfully and illegally by a day, while even seeking for ways to further deny him his freedom by locking him up illegally.”
Eluemunor said the parties in the matter would make their final statements in March, and that the amount of damages to be awarded to Ibori would be decided.
