“l Am Not A Mad Man, But Words Fail Me” – Ibori On London Court’s Judgment Against Him

By Adesina Soyooye

A former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori has declared that he is not a mad man. Ibori was reacting  to a judgement against him by a London Court on Friday, July 21, 2023.

The London Court had on Friday, found Ibori guilty of corruption and slammed him with a confiscation order to the tune of $130m, or an eight-year jail term.

He is required to pay up immediately.

The former Governor had served time before now in a London prison for corruption.

Reacting to the judgement which he described as outrageous, unrealistic and unrealisable, Ibori said he would appeal it as his people would term him a madman if he fails to do so.

Ibori: “I know one thing  for sure. 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!”

He lamented the judgement and said he was not sure of his continued belief that he will ever get justice from the British judicial system. He said the system has  consistently persecuted him, and his belief that he would ever get justice seems to  amounts to “Albert Einstein’s definition of madness – doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

In the Court Order issued in London on Friday, Britain seeks to confiscate 101.5 million pounds ($130 million) from Ibori, who it accused of abusing his office when he was the Governor of Delta State. The Court agreed that Ibori laundered millions of pounds in not just Britain but in other countries too.

The Confiscation Order against Ibori ranks as one of the biggest imposed on an individual in recent British legal history.

But Ibori said of his plans:

“The next steps will be to take my fight for justice to the highest courts in the UK.”

Judge David Tomlinson, who delivered the  confiscation judgement which  has lasted the whole of ten years at Southwark Crown Court, said the former Delta State Governor should pay the sum immediately or face an eight-year jail sentence.

Senior Legal Researcher at campaign group Spotlight on Corruption, Helen Taylor noted: “The long and tortuous road to reach this point shows just how tough it is to recover the proceeds of corruption in the UK.

“To ensure justice delayed doesn’t mean justice denied for the Nigerian people, it’s essential that the UK now makes every effort to ensure the speedy return of this stolen loot to benefit the victims of Ibori’s corruption in Delta State.”

Britain pledged to return any funds recovered from Ibori to Nigeria. In 2021, the country returned  £4.2 million confiscated from Ibori’s associates.

However, on this judgement,  Ibori said “it is difficult to comprehend and even harder to accept Judge Tomlinson’s ruling.”

He, also noted that he has “had to move past the fact that the British Courts found themselves competent to sit in Judgment over contracts awarded in Delta State that were legitimately awarded and completed.” He added that “the judgement is hard to comprehend given the inability of the British prosecutors to show any evidence whatsoever of monies defrauded or indeed missing from Delta State.

“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,” Ibori said.

“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.”

He accused the Judge of bias. Said Ibori: “The Judge in this case appears 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.”

Following is the full text of  Ibori’s response to the judgement which he posted on his Facebook wall.

“Albert Einstein is quoted as saying that the ‘definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result’.

“If that is true, then I must be going mad because in over a decade since the British Courts have been persecuting myself and those close to me, I kept believing that justice and fairness would eventually triumph.

“In hearing after hearing through the years, despite some of the most logic- defying rulings against me, I still believed. Despite clear evidence of police corruption against the main officer in my case (evidence so strong that it caused the lead prosecutor to resign from my case) I still believed. Despite a clear victory in my 2013 Confiscation hearing which left the Judge unable to make an order against me, only to have him rule that the prosecution should start the trial afresh some years later – I still believed.

“However, today’s ruling from Judge Tomlinson is difficult to comprehend and even harder to accept. I have to move past the fact that the British Courts found themselves competent to sit in Judgment over contracts awarded in Delta State, contracts that were legitimately awarded and completed. I have come to accept my fate despite the inability of the British prosecutors to show any evidence whatsoever of monies defrauded or indeed missing from Delta State.

“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.

“The Order made today was to be paid immediately, this was made in the full knowledge that it could take many months to actually realise the sale of many of these assets.

“There is an 8 year default sentence, which means that if I do not co-operate and pay nothing at all, then the prosecution can apply for the imposition of the default sentence. However as the prosecution already has a Restraint Order over the assets – the situation of my not co-operating or paying will not arise.

“However, an issue arises if my Restrained Assets are sold, and the total realised from the sale does not equal the amount in the Order, then the Prosecution can still apply for part of the default sentence to be applied, but they could only ask for a sliding scale reduction of the 8 years default sentence based on the amounts that remain outstanding. If such an application were to be made it would be vigorously contested.

“In the normal course of events any talk of a default sentence would normally be stayed until any outstanding Appeal has been concluded.

“The Judge in this case appears 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.

“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 was the Governor of Delta State from 1999 to 2007. In 2011, he was extradited from Dubai to Britain where he was prosecuted and jailed 13 years after he pleaded guilty  to charges of money laundering. He served seven years out of the 13 years jail term. Ibori returned to Nigeria thereafter where he, again, took up his position as a political kingmaker.