…..As Niger Delta Group Wants Saraki/Ibori Joint Ticket for 2019
There was jubilation in Delta on Monday evening as a London High Court awarded 1£ as damages to be paid to former Delta State governor, James Ibori who was convicted for money laundering, over his claim of unlawful detention by the British Home Secretary, Amber Rudd after the conclusion of his jail term, The New Diplomat has learnt.
The court ruled that Ibori was unlawfully held for one day, 18 hours and 10 minutes between December 20 and 21 last year.
This had made Ibori to demand for £4,000 as damages from the UK authority.
“There is no compensatory loss to Mr Ibori and I fix nominal damages at £1,” the judge said.
Ibori was jailed for fraud totalling nearly £50m in April 2012.
Ibori who was due to be released on December 20, 2016, was detained by the Home Office after indicating that there was no intention to deport Ibori to Nigeria until he handed over at least £57m “proceeds of crime”.
High Court Justice May ordered Ibori to be freed on conditions, describing the attempts to detain as “quite extraordinary”.
He was subsequently released and he returned to Nigeria in February 2017.
Meanwhile, in a related development, a Niger Delta Group known as Urhobo Political Movement has insisted that in the build up to 2019 presidential polls, both Senate President Bukola Saraki and convicted former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori should not be ruled out.
The Urhobo Political Movement in a statement said with the outcome of the case, it has become clear that ‘’Chief James Ibori was set up and unjustly detained and jailed in London…If eventually, the conviction case is thrown out, which Chief Ibori will still challenge, then he can run for Vice President in 2019 with Dr Bukola Saraki as the Presidential candidate and he Ibori the Vice Presidential Candidate.’’
But a London based Lawyer, Mr Tunde Johnson described the statement as a huge joke and a bad omen for Nigeria. ‘’For people to contemplate that itself is very sad. The international community will just be seeing Nigeria as a laughing stock for anybody to ever think of such a thing. Bukola needs to be monitored and also investigated….”
