A British court sentenced former Delta State governor James Ibori to 13 years in prison yesterday after he pleaded guilty to embezzling N12.6 billion.
He pleaded guilty in February to 10 charges of fraud and money-laundering committed during his eight years as governor. Reflecting the sheer scale of the fraud which Ibori has admitted, Judge Anthony Pitts said at the end of the two-day sentencing at Southwark Crown Court in London: "None of the sentencing guidelines even come close to the amounts in your case."
"During those two terms (as governor) you turned yourself in very short order indeed into a multi-millionaire through corruption," he added.
Pitts said it was one of the biggest money-laundering cases seen and that the 50 million pounds Ibori had admitted to stealing may be a "ludicrously low" fraction of his total booty.
"The figure may be in excess of 200 million pounds, it is difficult to tell. The confiscation proceedings may shed some further light on the enormity of the sums involved," he said.
If he hadn't changed his mind and pleaded guilty Ibori could have been sentenced to 24 years in jail.
He has served 2 years in jail already. The earliest Ibori could be given parole is at the end of 2016 or early 2017.
Proceedings will start later this year to recover an estimated £250 million that he looted from the state treasury.
He used this cash to buy property, expensive cars, and fund the lavish lifestyle of millionaire while many in his state live in poverty. While he was on a legitimate salary as governor of N1 million a year he was spending N35 million on school fees for his three children, purchasing a German maybach car worth N92 million for his N756 million South African mansion. In just a few years he racked up N242 million on an American Express Centurion card, only available to the very wealthy.
The true value of the amount stolen by Ibori may never be known, it has been estimated by some sources quoted in the media as being as much as N450 billion.
Ibori was arrested in Dubai in 2010 and extradited to the UK in April 2011. This will count as a year of his sentence already served.
The last day in court before Ibori was sentenced was dominated by a surprise character witness called by the defence.
John Fashanu, the former Wimbledon and England footballer, UN sports ambassador and Niger Delta militant amnesty football kingpin, came to the court to give Ibori a character reference. Ibori had an unparalleled effect on youth sporting development, he said, building many sports stadiums during his tenure.
"There has only been one governor like Mr James Ibori," the footballer, who says he has known Ibori for 20 years, said.
He also said Ibori had built an international standard shooting range on scrubland. Shooting was "something that had never been introduced to Nigeria before," he said.
At the final day of sentencing in the London court barrister for Ibori, Nicholas Purnell QC, tried to paint a picture of Ibori as being the victim of circumstances beyond his control. He said the former governor had been led astray by a solicitor and other politicians who had devised a fraud which netted Ibori $37 million.
Mr Parnell said, "The architect of the scheme is a solicitor recognised by the Uk Supreme court, and the other partner in it was another African state. In 2005 the scheme was already active when it was joined by Delta State."
On Monday the prosecution outlined how some of Ibori's frauds worked.
He overinflated contracts for a running track and a fleet of motor vehicles and hid the proceeds in accounts held by his wife and mistress in the UK.
Once he met solicitor Bhadresh Gohil his money was placed in untraceable accounts in the British Virgin Islands, the UK Channel Islands and Switzerland.
With his solicitor he tried to buy a private jet with stolen funds routed through an account which Gohil had access to in a Swiss bank.
The point at which Ibori changed his mind and plead guilty came after weeks of legal argument about what the jury would and would not be allowed to hear.
Outside the court in London yesterday, Kayode Ogundamisi, activist, tweeter and blogger, 43, said: "I am here to show that all Nigerians are not corrupt, it's not in our genes. When you become governor you effect the lives of a few people and his supporters are those who have benefitted from his corruption, even Saddam Hussein had his supporters. I am here to represent the voice of the poorest who could not make it to be here."
Loretta Onochie said, "I'm happy with the sentence because by the time he comes out Nigeria will have changed."
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Daily Trust