Ex-Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, Professor Itse Sagay, SAN, has said that former governor of Delta State James Ibori can appeal the UK court confiscation order of £101.5 million.
The Southwark Crown Court, United Kingdom, UK, had ordered the confiscation of £101.5 million from the ex-Governor Ibori or his risking an eight-year term of imprisonment.
Prof. Sagay explained on Saturday that Ibori can exploit two options by appealing the judgment in higher courts in London and defending any attempt at extradition in Nigeria.
Sagay in his reaction to the court’s ruling said: “Yes, he has an absolute right to appeal the judgment. The judgment was from a High Court so he can appeal to the higher courts, that is the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.
“He has two options and both can be exploited. He can appeal the judgment in London and defend any attempt at extradition in Nigeria. He can do the two.”
It would be recalled that Judge David Tomlinson, delivering the confiscation order said Ibori should pay the sum immediately or face an eight-year jail sentence.
Reacting to the Court’s ruling, Ibori in a Facebook post on Friday, said, “However, today’s ruling from Judge Tomlinson is difficult to comprehend and even harder to accept. I have to move past the fact that the British Courts found themselves competent to sit in Judgment over contracts awarded in Delta State for contracts that were legitimately awarded and completed.
“I have come to accept my fate despite the inability of the British prosecutors to show any evidence whatsoever of monies defrauded or indeed missing from Delta State.
“Since 2005 the British Prosecutors have investigated my assets worldwide, they 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 today’s Order.
“Not withstanding the fact that many of the assets are not and have never been owned by me – it seems that if you are my friend and you allowed me to spend some holiday time in your house, then by this order I now own your home and must ask you to sell it to satisfy the Order.
“The Order made today was to be paid immediately, this was made in the full knowledge that it could take many months to actually realise the sale of many of these assets.
“There is an 8-year default sentence, which means that if I do not cooperate and pay nothing at all, then the prosecution can apply for the imposition of the default sentence.
“However as the prosecution already has a Restraint Order over the assets – the situation of my not co-operating or paying will not arise.
“However, an issue arises if my Restrained Assets are sold, and the total realised from the sale does not equal the amount in the Order, then the Prosecution can still apply for part of the default sentence to be applied, but they could only ask for a sliding scale reduction of the 8 years default sentence based on the amounts that remain outstanding.
“If such an application were to be made it would be vigorously contested. In the normal course of events any talk of a default sentence would normally be stayed until any outstanding Appeal has been concluded.
“The Judge in this case has appeared to have cast aside any pretence of impartiality and has made an Order which is both wholly unrealistic and unrealisable.
“He has completely disregarded any arguments, evidence or expert witnesses in my favour. It was apparent during these last 2 days that he has forgotten many of the important elements of the case which is unsurprising as it almost 2 years since the case concluded.
“It has taken him 2 years to write this Judgment and in the interim he has presided over hundreds of cases, but I refuse to make excuses for him.
“At this point in time words fail me and so the question for me as I take my case to the Court of Appeal, is, if I continue to believe that I may finally get some Justice is this the definition of madness?
“I know one thing for sure, that if I do not go to the Court of Appeal to contest this outrageous Order then my people will definitely say that I am a madman!”
