It is not yet uhuru for Chief James Ibori, a former Governor of the oil-rich Delta State who was released from a United Kingdom prison only yesterday, Wednesday, December 21, 2016.
Sentenced to 13 years in prison by The Southwark Crown Court, on April 17, 2013, after pleading guilty to a 10-count charge bordering on money laundering and stealing a whopping £250 million belonging to the people of Delta State, Ibori, a PDP top shot, until he fell out with the government of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and fled abroad, YES INTERNATIONAL! Magazine exclusively gathered, even with his release, still can’t sleep with both eyes closed.
His current headache is actually in two fold: The Federal Government who couldn’t find enough evidence to convict him even during and after his 8-year tenure (1999-20007) as a governor has put machinery in motion to have him extradited to Nigeria – to again respond to his alleged financial sins here.
Secondly, the British authorities are still keeping an eye on him. Meaning he’s not yet totally free. In fact, even with his ‘freedom’, he can’t leave London yet. Again, he must report weekly at a police station until otherwise decreed.
Sadly, Ibori, convicted alongside his wife, Nkoyo and mistress, Udoamaka, will also forfeit all his assets to the UK government!
Currently putting up on Abbey Road, in London, the once very powerful, influential and wealthy man whose political sons and daughters, as well as kinsmen have been celebrating his temporary victory, is under serious surveillance in London. Perhaps to avert a repeat of how two of his then colleagues, late DSP Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State and Joshua Dariye of Plateau State, accused of similar offences by the UK government, disappeared. Only to re-appear later in Nigeria.
Ibori, popularly called Odidigborigbo by his admirers, faces a 170-count charge, upon his eventual return to Nigeria, divulged one insider. ‘The EFCC is already working on that’.