UK court rejects Ibori’s appeal, upholds £101.5m forfeiture

The UK Court of Appeal has dismissed former Delta State Governor James Ibori’s appeal against a £101.5 million confiscation order linked to proceeds of crime, Premium Times reports.

Ibori had sought to cut the order by about £4.3 million to £97.21 million, arguing that adjusting frozen bank funds for inflation was disproportionate.

In Tuesday’s judgement, Justices Andrew Popplewell and Simon Bryan and Judge Nicholas Dean held the adjustment was justified under confiscation law.

“The very lengthy delay in this case was entirely Mr Ibori’s fault in his persistent resistance to the making of the order,” the judges said.

“For these reasons Mr Ibori’s appeal is dismissed,” the court concluded.

Ibori, who governed Delta State from 1999 to 2007, was jailed for 13 years in the UK in April 2012 after pleading guilty to 10 counts of fraud and money laundering.

He was deported to Nigeria in December 2016. The ruling leaves the £101.51 million order, first made in July 2023, intact.