Ibori hopeful conviction ‘will be overturned’

James Ibori, former governor of Delta state, is hopeful his conviction by a British court will be overturned.

In 2012, Ibori started serving a 13-year prison sentence in the UK on corruption charges, but his spokesman said on Friday that there are hopes that the judgment would be quashed based on a twist in another trial.

Tony Eluemunor, Ibori’s spokesman, said that at the Southwark Court, London, on Thursday, the UK director of public prosecution applied to drop the case against Bhadresh Gohil, one of Ibori’s lawyers, over an alleged attempt to pervert justice.

Gohil had alleged that the London Metropolitan Police officers investigating Ibori and others were involved in bribery and corruption – a claim that could raise doubts on the initial convictions if confirmed to be true.

Sasha Wass, the crown prosecutor, also said that the UK authorities were no longer interested in pursuing the case against Gohil, according to Eluemunor, and declined to disclose the reasons for the change of mind.

Eluemunor said: “The Prosecution’s dropping of the case on Thursday will have a knock on effect on the confiscation case against Ibori and Gohil scheduled for May as Judge Testar has ordered that materials withheld from Ibori and associates be made available to their legal teams – including the lawyers of Christine Ebie and  Udoamaka Onuigbo (his sister and former wife respectively, earlier convicted).

“Also, the defence lawyer, Kamlish, informed the Judge that he would ask the Court of Appeal to retry the case afresh, as though it would be handling a totally new case. This means that the earlier convictions may be overturned if such an appeal sails through.”

Eluemunor said Ibori’s “big win” during Thursday’s proceedings is that the judge “immediately ordered that the all the materials the prosecution had withheld from the defence be made available to Ibori’s and all his associates’ legal team”.

“Kamlish said their case had been contested on two very simple basis: firstly, that Gohil’s allegations that the Police Officers investigating the Ibori case were corrupt were true, and was central to all the cases already decided; and secondly, that the Prosecution had suppressed critical material in the trials of James Ibori and in the Court of Appeal, and that was the reason why they were about to enter into an abuse of court process argument. Thus, said the lawyer, the Crown’s pleading of no evidence on Thursday shows that the allegations are true,” Eluemunor said.