On getting news of his release, hundreds of indigenes of Oghara trooped out en mass singing solidarity songs and marching along the major streets of the otherwise sleepy town since his departure.
However, it emerged that the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, did not intend to deport Ibori to Nigeria until he handed over £18 million of “proceeds of crime”, reported the BBC.
But ruling against the Home Office, a High Court judge said yesterday that attempts to detain him were “quite extraordinary”.
Ordering Ibori to be immediately freed from prison, Mrs. Justice Juliet May said: “You don’t hold someone just because it is convenient to do so and without plans to deport them.”
Ibori, 49, changed his original plea as his trial was about to begin and admitted stealing money from Delta state and laundering it in London through a number of offshore companies. Ibori admitted to fraud totalling more than $79m, said to be part of total embezzlement that could exceed $250m.
As governor of Delta state, he racked up credit card bills of $200,000 a month and owned a fleet of armoured Range Rovers, said the prosecution. He was trying to buy a plane at the time he was arrested. Once seen as one of Nigeria's wealthiest and most influential politicians, Ibori was seized in 2010 in Dubai at the request of the Metropolitan police and extradited to London last year.
His wife, Theresa Ibori; sister, Christine Ibori-Idie; mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo, and London-based solicitor Bhadresh Gohil have all already been convicted of money laundering.
DfID said Ibori systematically stole public funds, depositing them in bank accounts across the world. A major breakthrough came when officers from Scotland Yard found two computer hard drives that revealed the extent of his crimes.
But the case has also embarrassed DfID. CDC Group, the private enterprise arm of DfID, according to the BBC, put $47.5m into a private equity fund, Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), which invested in Nigerian companies allegedly linked to Ibori.
Now the same Delta people (direct victims of Ibori;s crime) are celebrating his release.
First off, what are they celebrating and why are they celebrating?
I see petty thieves that steal things that are less than ten thousand naira (#10,000) been beaten or burnt alive or sent to Nigerian prison unjustly and people condemn them, why are Nigerians celebrating over the release of someone that stole over a billion naira (#1,000,000,000,000)? That’s a very huge amount of money that can change the lives of so many people, look at this Niger delta avengers blowing pipelines, why don’t they attack the likes of Ibori? They should start with the corrupt politicians in their states before taking it to a federal level.
In Nigeria everyone is praying for corruption to come to an end but I wonder why they celebrate criminals.
Tinubu as we all know is a corrupt politician but Nigerians admire him and gives him respect, Ibori is released from prison, we all know he committed the crimes but still, Nigerians are still happy that he has been released, This are criminals, this are the kind of people holding the country from progressing and yet Nigerians celebrate them. They should be stoned to death and not celebrated, When Ibori will return, if Nigerians really want corruption to go, they should mock him, ignore him, he shouldn’t be allowed to hold a position in the public office, he should be criticized critically and not celebrated.
I know some people will say, if we do all this it won’t change anything but if you keep celebrating them, they will keep having the mind and courage to continue their criminal act, Nigerians please be sensible, don’t sell your right to be sensible because they will give you part of the stolen money, the peanut they will give to you wont help you when they start making things hard for you. I will keep saying it, NIGERIANS PLEASE WAKE UP.
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