James Ibori
By Our Reporter
The former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, who was convicted for money laundering in the United Kingdom has vowed to appeal the order of a British court directing him to immediately pay $130 million or face an eight-year jail sentence.
Reuters had reported that in a court order issued in London on Friday, Judge David Tomlinson of Southwark Crown Court asked Ibori to pay the sum immediately or face an eight-year jail sentence.
The judge formally declared that Ibori had benefited from criminal conduct in the sum of 101.5 million pounds.
The judge said, “I make a confiscation order in that sum because Mr Ibori has not satisfied me nor really has he tried to satisfy me that he is incapable of paying the full amount.”
Vowing to appeal the ruling in a Facebook post, Ibori said, “At this point in time words fail me and so the question for me as I take my case to the Court of Appeal, is, if I continue to believe that I may finally get some Justice is this the definition of madness?
“I know one thing for sure, that if I do not go to the Court of Appeal to contest this outrageous Order then my people will definitely say that I am a madman!”
Ibori described the order as unrealistic and unrealisable, saying, “The Judge in this case has appeared to have cast aside any pretence of impartiality and has made an Order which is both wholly unrealistic and unrealisable. He has completely disregarded any arguments, evidence or expert witnesses in my favour.
“It was apparent during these last 2 days that he has forgotten many of the important elements of the case which is unsurprising as it is almost 2 years since the case concluded. It has taken him 2 years to write this judgment and in the interim he has presided over hundreds of cases, but I refuse to make excuses for him.”
He added, “Since 2005 the British Prosecutors have investigated my assets worldwide, they have had a restraint order in place on most of those assets and they are well aware that the total monetary value of those assets is nowhere close to the sums that were the subject of today’s Order.
“Notwithstanding the fact that many of the assets are not and have never been owned by me – it seems that if you are my friend and you allowed me to spend some holiday time in your house, then by this order I now own your home and must ask you to sell it to satisfy the Order.”
