STANDING before British Judge Anthony Pitts of the Southwark Crown Court of London on Monday morning, former governor of Nigeria’s Delta State, James Onanaefe Ibori, entered a guilty plea to a 10-count charge of fraud, money laundering and corruption.
The latest development marks a major milestone in the case involving Mr. Ibori, the central figure of investigations into fraud and money laundering initiated by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Mr. Ibori was governor of Delta State for eight years.
Mr. Ibori was accused of abusing his powers as governor of oil-rich Delta State to move large amounts of funds from state coffers to his private accounts in the United Kingdom, often with the help of family members and associates that include a sister, Christine Ibie-Ibori; an associate, Udoamaka Okonkwo and his wife, Theresa Nkoyo Ibori, who have all been tried and sentenced by British courts for their respective roles in aiding Governor Ibori’s alleged crimes.
A lawyer associated with Mr. Ibori, Bhadresh Gohil, was also sentenced to 7 years last April.
“Mr. Ibori has accepted the entirety of the prosecution’s case as it has always been set out,” said a Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, Sasha Wass, QC, concluding that the prosecution does not seek to go ahead with Ibori’s trial anymore.
If the tradition of the British prosecution system is anything to go by, Mr. Ibori may be rewarded for facing up to his alleged crimes by pleading guilty to money laundering. This is often in the form of a reduction of the prison sentence handed him by up to 30 percent.
A Federal High Court in Asaba, Delta State, had in December 2009 discharged and acquitted Mr. Ibori of all 170 charges of corruption originally brought against him by the EFCC.
After a dramatic cat-and-mouse chase between Nigeria’s financial crime agency, the EFCC and Mr. Ibori, his last arrest by Interpol agents in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, on May 12, 2010. He has remained in detention ever since.
It is believed that Ibori’s time in detention will also be deducted from his jail sentence on April 16.