Despite bribery evidence, Ibori’s conviction stands, says UK

Britain’s state prosecution agency has said that the conviction of former Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori, remains valid in spite of evidence that a British Police officer took bribes during the investigation of his case.

Ibori’s lawyers had alleged serious misconduct by Britain’s prosecuting authorities in his case, including that the prosecution team failed to properly disclose information to the defence in relation to the alleged corruption and that it made misleading statements in court.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Thursday that while the information should have been disclosed to the defence, that did not call into question the validity of the convictions of Ibori and others.

This followed an internal review of the case, which lasted months after the CPS said in May that it had found “material to support the assertion that a Police officer received payment in return for information.”

One of Ibori’s associates, who has been convicted of money laundering, Bhadresh Gohil, had also alleged that the judicial process was tainted because prosecutors had covered up evidence of Police corruption.

Ibori, who was governor of Delta State between 1999 and 2007, and is serving a 13-year sentence in a British prison after pleading guilty in 2012 to 10 counts of fraud and money laundering.