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 in April 2012 by a
Southwark Crown court in London was released by prison
authorities on 22 January.
He was released from Her Majesty’s 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.
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. Ibori’s new prison cannot be
confirmed.
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 Nigeria’s 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.
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 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.
Culled from PMnews report.
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