James Ibori has admitted stealing money from Delta state and laundering it in London through a number of offshore companies. Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA
London (Reuters) – A British court hearing in which prosecutors were seeking the confiscation of 90 million pounds in assets they say belong to a corrupt former Nigerian oil state governor ended inconclusively on Monday and will start afresh next year.
James Ibori, who was governor of oil-producing Delta State in southern Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, is serving a 13-year jail sentence in a British jail after pleading guilty in February 2012 to 10 counts of fraud and money-laundering.
Once an influential power-broker at the heart of Nigeria’s ruling party, he is by far the most senior politician to be held accountable for the corruption that has blighted Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer for decades.
The confiscation proceedings against him will determine whether he emerges from jail impoverished or still in possession of a large enough fortune to regain a position of influence in Nigeria, where the case is being closely followed.
