THE Southwark Court, London jury in the money laundering trial of associates of Chief James Ibori has found the former governor of Delta State’s sister, Christine Ibori-Ibie, guilty of all the charges of money laundering and mortgage fraud levelled against her in case number T20087009; conspiracy to commit fraud.
Ms. Bimpe Pogoson, Chief Ibori’s assistant, was however, acquitted on all the charges preferred against her, while Udoamaka Onuigbo was found not guilty on one of the three money laundering count charges against her, as the jury failed to reach a verdict on the other two charges.
The jury will resume today and “must reach a verdict” according to a Southwark Crown source.
The three persons were accused of helping the former governor of the oil-rich Delta State launder close to 70 million pounds through London banks.
Chief Ibori was arrested in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by INTERPOL some days ago at the request of the Metropolitan Police service.
Meanwhile, Chief Ibori has rejected the judgment.
According to him in a statement made available to newsmen and signed by his media assistant, Tony Eluemunor, “Ibori has totally rejected the verdict returned by the jury against his sister because no evidence of any crime, corruption or money laundering was established against his sister. He said that the fact that she obeyed the advice of her lawyers to exercise her right not to mount the witness stand should not amount to a crime for which she would be found guilty on all counts.”
He said “that she chose to remain silent should not be the reason why she should have been so punished, that is why her lawyers have served notice that they will appeal against the judgment.”
Ibori said that though a mighty international attempt orchestrated from Nigeria was on to make his family members pay heavily for the public service he rendered to Delta State just because of crass politics, through distortion of facts and media lynching, he nevertheless remained confident that in the end, justice would be done and the innocent would not be unduly victimised. For this reason, he said the defence would appeal the case and ensure that real justice was done and this miscarriage of justice was not allowed to stand.
According to him, “This is because despite the judge’s directive of last week that every charge must be proved beyond reasonable doubt, despite the failure of the Crown Prosecution to establish any proceeds of crime, despite the prosecution’s failure to evidence any crime,” adding that “it is difficult to understand how his sister alone could have been found guilty of money laundering without proof by the London court.”
Also, it is a fact that during the judge’s summing up, he expressely directed that the mortgage charges were “not safe” because the evidence presented by the prosecution had been totally destroyed by the defence during cross-examination; this fact was even conceeded in open court by the prosecution.
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