UK to Return Ex Delta Governor Ibori’s £6.8m of Loot to Nigeria
The UK government is to return an additional 6.8 million pounds of the confiscated loot of former Delta Governor, James Ibori, to Nigeria.
Rupert Broad, UK
Metropolitan Police Senior Investigator, disclosed this in London on
Tuesday at a meeting on “Supporting Policing in Nigeria: What Role for
Police in the Nigerian Diaspora” held in the House of Commons.
While speaking on UK and Nigeria’s
anti-corruption partnership, Broad said “out of the eight million pounds
confiscated from Ibori, 1.2 million pounds had so far been retuned to
Nigeria, while the rest was waiting for redistribution as to when it
would be sent back to Nigeria.”
He also said that an additional 80 million pounds had been temporarily confiscated from Ibori and his associates, including Patrice Gohil, one of his lawyers.
“Approximately, 80 million pounds is
temporarily frozen and a confiscation hearing has been fixed for April
2015, where the judge will determine how much was stolen, after which it
would be returned to Nigeria.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls
that the British Southcrown Court in April 2012 sentenced
Ibori to
13 years jail term for fraud and money laundering.
Broad, who attributed the success of the
Ibori case to partnership with the nation’s Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission ( EFCC), said “the case signified Nigeria’s commitment
to the fight corruption.
“In light of the Ibori case, Nigeria has done a fantastic job in tackling corruption.
“Corruption does not go away easily,
addressing it requires continuous process and the UK Metropolitan
Police will continue to collaborate with Nigerian authorities on cross
border international investigation.”
Similarly, Nsikan Etuk,
the Director of the UK Nigeria Police Forum, said that the diaspora was
a powerful tool for the reformation of the nation’s police force.
Etuk, who spoke on “Supporting Policing
in Nigeria”, expressed the commitment of the Forum in collaborating with
government in tackling challenges impeding efficiency in policing in
the country.
He said that the Forum, whose membership
included serving and retired police personnel, was established
following challenges facing the Nigerian community in the UK.
In the same vein, Kunle Bamgbose,
the Nigerian Deputy High Commissioner to the UK, said the nation’s
police officers were among the brightest in Africa, adding that they
were only impeded by operational challenges.
He said “inadequate equipment such as
communication gadgets, the lack of efficient forensic laboratories and
other logistic problems are some of the challenges facing the police
force.”
Bamgbose, however, said “it is difficult to impose UK policing culture in Nigeria because the environments are different.”
According to him, partnership in training and capacity building of officers will be an ideal area of collaboration.
The meeting, which had participants from the Nigerian community, was chaired by Meg Hillier, the Chair of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Nigeria.