Former governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, has said he is ready to appeal the latest United Kingdom (UK) forfeiture judgement against him, saying that he was being persecuted by the British Judge.
The UK authorities reportedly launched proceedings to seize more than £101.5 million pounds from Ibori, who had pleaded guilty to money laundering charges and served a sentence.
Before the judgement was passed, there were reports that Ibori’s lawyers had advised him to plead guilty in possible exchange for a lesser sentence.
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.
The lawyer further informed the court that Ibori risks a fresh five to 10 years prison sentence should he fail to forfeit the amount.
The judgement comes seven years after the former governor returned to Nigeria upon serving his jail term in a UK prison, and has since maintained a low profile.
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.
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 Court Order.
