Ibori To Remain In UK Prison Till 2012

The London trial of former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori has been delayed until 2012 after his defence team successfully argued that they hadn’t been given enough time to prepare.

Consequently, Ibori who is facing 14 charges of fraud and money laundering, will remain in prison until the trial, now set to begin on 13 February, next year, the court has decided.

In legal hearings before the trial, defence team members told the court, they will argue that he cannot be tried in the UK because a Nigerian court has already decided that there is no evidence he has committed any crime in Nigeria.

Ibori appeared in court wearing a creased grey linen jacket and shirt without a tie.  He waved to supporters, and at one point flashed a smile at the police officers who had worked to amass thousands of pages of evidence against him.

A member of Ibori’s defence team, Benjamin Aina QC told Southwark Crown court that  they could not begin the trial as planned in November, because they needed more time to go through the approximately 65,000 pages of evidence and also travel to Nigeria to speak to witnesses.

“Ibori has the right to be competently defended,” Judge Anthony Pitts said, setting the new date.

Ibori’s defence team did not object to the prosecution’s request to extend the time he could be held in custody. Without such agreement, prisoners remanded in custody for non violent offences can be released on bail after six months.

Ibori was extradited to the UK from Dubai in April, and prosecutors decided he would be tried alongside a co-defendant, Emmanuel Preko, who was already slated to be tried in November

But Ibori’s Barrister, Nicholas Purnell QC, referred to in court by other members of the defence team  and the Judge as “one of the finest legal minds of this generation”, told the court he had been forced to withdraw his services from Ibori because of the schedule.

“This has caused some considerable distress to the defendant,” he said.

The delay to the commencement date allowed Mr Purnell to represent  Ibori as originally planned, he said.

The prosecution said the defence team had already had adequate time to prepare, as many of the legal representatives had also worked on the trials involving Ibori’s associates. His wife, mistress and lawyer, were all convicted in London last year.

Much of the complex evidence has been agreed over the course of the previous trials, the prosecution said.

“One wonders what the defence team has been doing these past months,” Sasha Wass QC told the court.

Before the trial the court will convene to hear legal arguments, where  Ibori will apply to have the case thrown out.

Prosecutors said an independent expert on Nigerian law had given evidence in previous trials that the crimes committed by Ibori’s associates were illegal in Nigeria. “It doesn’t seem to us that they will be able to say that what Ibori did; stole, lied, cheated, would not be offences in Nigeria,”  Wass said.

The public gallery was full of Ibori’s supporters.

It was also noticed that the court usher, the official monitoring the recording of proceedings, and the guard who brought Ibori up from the cells are Nigerians living in London.

Secretary to State Government, Mr George Feyii, flanked by the Head of Service, Mrs Esther Anucha and the Permanent Secretary, Special Services Bureau, Mr Sovens Okari, speaking on the fire incident at the state secretariat complex, Port Harcourt.