The James Onanefe Ibori London trial took a new turn, weekend, as the British Police paid Ibori’s former counsel, Mr. Bhadresh Gohil, a hefty sum of £20,000 in an out-of-court settlement. Gohil, former UK lawyer to Ibori, received the settlement from the Crown Prosecution Service after being unlawfully deprived of his liberty over Ibori case.
The extraordinary payment is the latest turn in a legal case, as the Police investigators and British Crown prosecutors are now facing allegations of police corruption and a cover-up of key evidence. The BBC celebrated the story, weekend, with a dispatch, entitled, ‘Ibori’s lawyer awarded 20,000 Pounds’ … as British prosecution admits manipulation charge.
The extraordinary payment is just the latest twist in a legal case that had led to investigations into allegations of police corruption and a cover-up of key evidence. The payment to Gohil may be a direct result of the pressure the mainstream British media from the BBC to The Guardian, London Times, The Mail, The Telegraph, among others, mounted on the London Metropolitan Police and the courts to ensure that allegations of injustice and court manipulation by Ibori’s lawyers are fully looked into so that the cherished British jurisprudence tradition was maintained.
Now, all the investigators and the prosecutors in the Ibori case as well as all of its associated cases, especially the lead prosecutor, Ms. Sasha Wass, Queen’s Counsel (QC, the British equivalent of Senior Advocate of Nigeria) have been dropped. The two central prosecutors in the case; Sasha Wass QC and Esther Schutzer-Weissmann were unceremoniously dismissed from the Ibori case in March 2016. The case was removed from the Met Police and handed to the National Crime Agency. All the original investigating officers have all been removed from the case.
Last week, the Police paid Gohil for an infringement committed last November. He was expected to be released then, but less than a week before the release date, prosecution barrister, Sasha Wass, successfully applied for this to be revoked and Gohil was detained for three more weeks. So Gohil went to court and accused the Prosecution of blatant lies to mislead the court. Gohil, who has been seeking to have his convictions overturned since 2012, has been the target of an on-going smear campaign by the Met Police and the Crown Prosecution to derail the Appeal.
