Former
Governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori today pleaded guilty
before a Southwark Crown Court in London where he was being tried on
fraud and money laundering charges. Sahara Reporters reports that Ibori
pleaded guilty to 10 counts of fraud, money laundering and corrutption
charges before Judge Anthony Pitts.
Ibori’s
guilty plea, it was learnt, has closed a chapter to a long judicial and
political saga pertaining to his massive money laundering activities in
his eight years as governor of one of Nigeria’s major oil producing
states. Click to read more
Ibori
faces up to 10 years in UK prison during sentencing, which will take
place after the completion of the trial of his accomplice and financial
advisor, Elias Preko, a Ghanaian.
Today the judge ordered that the remaining charges would remain on file.
In
a short submission, Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, Sasha Wass, QC
said the prosecution does not seek to go ahead with Ibori’s trial
anymore saying, “Mr. Ibori has accepted the entirety of the
prosecution’s case as it has always been set out.”
Investigations
revealed that the British judicial system usually rewards an accused
who did not waste the time of the court by admitting their crimes with a
30 percent reduction in prison sentence.
P.M.NEWS
also gathered that in sentencing him to a jail term, the court will
take into consideration the number of years spent in detention by the
convict.
Ibori,
who was arrested on May 12, 2010 in Dubai, it was gathered, will have
the months spent in Dubai and London detention centres deducted from his
overall jail term.
Source: PM News
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