A London court has rejected an appeal by former governor of Delta state, James Ibori, seeking to reduce a £101.5 million asset confiscation order imposed on him following his conviction for fraud and money laundering.
According to reports by Reuters, the court of appeal rejected Ibori’s arguments on Tuesday after he challenged the amount ordered by a lower court in 2023.
Ibori approached the court seeking to reduce the confiscation sum by about £4.3 million ($5.8 million).
The confiscation order, equivalent to about $136.05 million, was issued by Southwark Crown Court in July 2023.
The court directed Ibori to pay the amount immediately or face an eight-year default prison sentence.
The appeal had delayed the confiscation process. The proceedings can now move forward unless Ibori decides to challenge the ruling at the UK supreme court.
Speaking to Reuters after the ruling, Ibori said he was consulting his lawyers to determine his next course of action.
He also expressed frustration over the length of the legal proceedings, saying his troubles had persisted for a long time.
“Give me a break,” he added.
Ibori, who was governor of Delta state between 1999 and 2007, was convicted by a UK court in 2012 after pleading guilty to laundering tens of millions of dollars in public funds through British banks and properties.
He was sentenced to 13 years in prison but was released in late 2016 after serving about half of sentence, taking into account time spent in pre-trial and post-trial detention. He returned to Nigeria in early 2017.
The confiscation proceedings followed investigations into his financial activities by Nigerian and British anti-corruption authorities. Ibori had left Nigeria for Dubai before being extradited to Britain in 2011.
In 2020, British prosecutors initiated proceedings to confiscate properties worth about £117 million linked to the former governor.
In July 2023, David Tomlinson, a judge at Southwark Crown Court, ordered the confiscation of £101.5 million traced to Ibori, following what he described as factual findings.
At the time, Ibori said he would appeal the decision, describing the ruling as difficult to comprehend and accept.
He alleged that the prosecution had failed to establish that money was stolen from Delta state and accused the judge of disregarding evidence and arguments presented by his lawyers.
He also questioned the directive to pay the confiscation sum immediately, arguing that selling the restrained assets could take several months.
The former governor had said the eight-year default sentence could become an issue if proceeds from the sale of his assets fell short of the amount ordered by the court.
In 2021, the British government returned £4.2 million recovered from Ibori’s former wife and sister to Nigeria under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by both countries in March of that year.
