£6.9m loot: AGF goofed – Ibori

A former Governor of De‎lta State, Chief James Ibori, has faulted the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over the existence of a £6.9 million loot to his name.
Ibori said no such money exists as claimed by Malami.
Ibori, in a statement on Thursday, said whether in pounds or any other currency, no such money exists and as such Malami only goofed.
In the statement by his spokesman, Tony Eluemunor, Ibori said: “Such money, whether in British pounds, American dollars or the Nigerian Naira just does not exist. This is because the Ibori London trial is not yet over. It is an incontrovertible fact that the confiscation hearing has not started at all, and remains months away into the future.
“This makes it disappointing that a high official of State such as the Attorney-General may have been misled into believing that an Ibori loot not only exists anywhere, but he even put a figure (6.9 million pounds) to it.
“With all due respect to the Minister and the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, it is curious that such a misleading statement could have come less than a week that dozens of well-respected foreign media organisations including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), The Times of London, The Guardian of London,   and a host of Nigerian news outlets reported that the case against Ibori and his associates have become shaky as some operatives of the London Metropolitan Police have been accused of bribery and corruption in the course of their investigations.
“Thus at the Thursday January 21, 2016 hearing the prosecution was forced to withdraw its case against one of Ibori’s counsels, Mr. Bradesh Gohil.
“It had charged Gohil of leaking fabricated documents to media organisations and Members of (British) Parliament, but Gohil turned the case against the Police, accusing it of misleading the court with tainted evidence from corrupt operatives and of withholding key documents which could have proved police corruption.
“The New Indian Express of Monday 25 January 2016 ventured further than the Times to report that Gohil, who was freed from jail last year, may now challenge his previous conviction, just as Ibori or any of his associates already convicted may also decide to do.
“In representations to the judge, Stephen Kamlish, Gohil’s defence team leader accused the Crown Prosecution Service of “positively misleading the court and the parties as part of their deliberate cover-up of discloseable material.”