United Kingdom (UK) has launched a fresh bid to confiscate part of the £117 million worth of properties stolen by former governor of Delta state, James Ibori.
Recall that in 2012, a UK court sentenced Ibori who was governor of Nigeria’s Delta State from 1999 to 2007, to prison after convicting him of fraud and money laundering.
The former governor ended his jail term in 2016 and returned to Nigeria in January 2017. While in jail, British prosecutors made an attempt to confiscate all his assets discovered to be proceeds of crime but failed as a result of unresolved legal issues. Subsequent attempts to seize the properties have failed due to some legal bottleneck.
However, a report from Reuters states that a fresh process to confiscate the properties was re-launched in court today, Thursday, January 16.
A British prosecutor, Jonathan Kinnear, was said to have listed the assets the United Kingdom is seeking to seize from the former governor “and return to Nigerian public funds.
Kinnear was quoted to have said the total value of the “known proceeds of Ibori’s crimes” is £117 million (equivalent of about N55.4 billion) but that “only a portion of that sum is likely to be recoverable.”
Reports say that during his time in office, Ibori, 57, amassed a portfolio of luxury properties in Nigeria, London, Washington, Houston and Johannesburg.
And that he travelled all over the world, staying in the most expensive hotels and spending lavishly in luxury stores.
Reuters reported that the ex-governor’s lifestyle during those years was a far cry from his modest beginnings in life.
“As a young man, he had worked as a shop assistant at a branch of the home improvements chain, Wickes in London, where he was caught trying to steal from the store and was convicted of theft,” it noted.