A court in London says it will rule on the confiscation charge of about £100 million loot allegedly linked to the former governor of Delta state, James Ibori.
It was gathered that at the Thursday hearing, the prosecutor asked the court to confiscate £101.5 million traced to Ibori.
According to Reuters, the lead prosecution counsel, Jonathan Kinner, prayed the court should seize the money, adding that if the former governor refuses to cooperate, he should be jailed.
The international news agency reported that the prosecution and defence counsels raised arguments on how the confiscation figure should be calculated.
David Tomlinson, a judge at Southwark Crown Court, had made “factual findings” regarding the funds and is expected to formally issue his order on Friday or shortly afterwards, whereby the judge’s verdict will put an end to over 10 years of legal disputes regarding the attempt to confiscate the funds.
James Ibori, the former governor of Delta between 1999 to 2007, in 2012, sentenced to 13 years imprisonment by UK court after convicting him of fraud and money laundering.
The former governor ended his jail term in 2016 and returned to Nigeria the following year.
Meanwhile over the years, the British prosecutors have made several attempts to confiscate Ibori’s assets alleged to be proceeds of crime.
However, in 2020, the United Kingdom launched a bid to confiscate “proceeds of loot” in the £117 million worth of properties linked to Ibori, and in March 2021, the UK government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian government for the repatriation of £4.2 million loot recovered from Ibori.
In May 2021, the federal government received the £4.2 million loot.
