Ibori alleges unfair treatment, vows to contest UK’s £101.5m forfeiture order

<p>Former governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori has vowed to appeal the latest United Kingdom (UK) forfeiture judgement against him saying that he was being persecuted by the British Judge.</p>, <p>The United Kingdom authorities had reportedly launched proceedings to seize more than £101.5 million from Ibori, who had pled guilty to money laundering charges and served sentence.</p>, <p>Those knowledgeable about the case say that Ibori’s lawyers had advised him to plead guilty in possible exchange for a lesser sentence.</p>, <p>David Tomlinson, a judge at Southwark Crown Court said he has made “factual findings” about the funds and made a formal order on Friday to compel Ibori to refund a further £101.5million .</p>, <p>Jonathan Kinnear, the senior prosecutor, told the court on Thursday that the total amount of money that should be confiscated from Ibori was £101.5 million.</p>, <p>The lawyer further informed the court that Ibori risks a fresh five to 10 years prison sentence should he fail to pay the money.</p>, <p>The judgement comes seven years after the former governor returned to Nigeria upon serving his time, has since maintained a low profile until his recent political resurgence following his old time friend, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s emergence as President of Nigeria.</p>, <p>His political foes, especially in his home state, Delta, have been reportedly shaken by his reemergence on the political stage, and are alleged to have sponsored a rash of negative media commentaries about him.</p>, <p>Reacting to the latest UK order, Ibori said Judge Tomilson’s ruling was difficult to understand and even harder to accept having believed that justice and fairness would triumph, hearing after hearing, through the years.</p>, <p>He said since 2005 the British Prosecutors had investigated his assets worldwide, 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 the recent Cour