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The United Kingdom government is set to return to Nigerian government, over £4.2 million recovered from a former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, who was convicted of corruption charges in the U.K. in 2012.
The money translates to about N2.4 billion at the official exchange rate.
Representatives of both the U.K. and Nigerian governments signed an agreement for the return of the money to Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.
The signing of the agreement, which took place at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja, was done under the auspices of the U.K.-Nigeria Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which came into force in 2016.
The British High Commissioner, Catriona Laing, signed the agreement on behalf of the U.K. government while the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, signed it on behalf of the Nigeria government.
Ibori’s conviction
The about £4.2 million was recovered from Ibori, his associates and relatives.
Mr Ibori pleaded guilty to money laundering, conspiracy to defraud, and forgery in a U.K. court in February 2012.
He was sentenced to a total of 13 years in prison.
Some of his associates and family also received sentences for similar offences and were similarly sent to prison.
Mr Ibori, a man who stole millions from the suffering people of oil-rich Delta State and laundered the proceeds in the U.K., had earlier been set free of the charges by a Nigerian federal court.
He was later arrested in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) and extradited to the U.K where he was eventually jailed for the aspects of the crimes committed in the U.K.
The ex-convict, who was believed to retain his political influence in Delta State while serving his jail term in the U.K., returned to Nigeria in February 2017 after completing his imprisonment.
‘U.K won’t welcome stolen assets’
Speaking at the event Ms Laing said the signing of the agreement was a demonstration of the U.K. government’s commitment to recovering and returning corruptly-obtained assets to the rightful owners.
She noted that the recovered fund was a product of a long-drawn battle with third parties who had shown interest in it but were eventually defeated in U.K courts.
She said, “This agreement represents the culmination of many years of work by law enforcement authorities in the UK and Nigeria. The return of the assets to Nigeria has been subject to a number of hard-fought legal challenges by third parties which were defeated in the UK…
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