ANTI-GRAFT WAR:Britain accuses AGF of blocking Ibori's trial
Saturday, 01 December 2007 www.vanguardonline.com

LONDON — Britain is complaining about obstruction from Nigeria to the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement between the two countries especially in the fight against money laundering.

Of particular note, according to Britain, is the frustration of moves to prosecute former governor James Ibori of Delta State.

Reports from London yesterday said eight formal requests for assistance were sent to Nigeria in respect of extant proceedings conducted by the Fraud Prosecution Service and Organised Crime Division of the Crown Prosecution Service.
All the requests save two were executed. The exceptions were the requests in respect of Ibori and another.

“The fact is that all requests made before Aondoakaa was appointed as AG got the appropriate response. It’s only the two made since July that have been stalled by Mr. Aondoakaa,” one source said.

“It’s troubling because Mr. Aondoakaa knows that his posture is untenable. And he is sending a signal, unfortunately, that his mandate is to protect top public officials who may have made away with millions of pounds sterling of public funds.”

British officials said Justice Minister, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa's contention was nothing short of bizarre and a hypocritical departure from established norm.
“Under the terms of the Agreement, requests for assistance are to be made by the Central Authorities for each party,” a British official said.

“For the UK, that Central Authority is the Secretary of State (SoS) for the Home Department. Now, Mr. Aondoakaa knows that U.K. domestic legislation designates certain prosecuting authorities to issue letters of request for mutual legal assistance to another state.

“The Director of Public Prosecutions and any Crown Prosecutor are designated prosecuting authorities.

“Accordingly, they are authorized to make a request for mutual legal assistance.”
“A request made by a Crown Prosecutor is sent to the Secretary of State, who has discretion whether or not to transmit the request.

“In effect what it means is that David Williams, a crown prosecutor, and Ken MacDonald, the DPP, are authorized, on behalf of the Secretary of State, to make the request. And Mr. Andoakaa knows this full well,” argued our British sources.

Comment:
With the topmost law enforcement officer in this new administration seeming to be working for the known looters on Nigeria, how can this administration be shown to be fighting corruption??
Is Aondoakaa another of Obasanjo plants, to make sure status quo and protection of Nigeria's thieves is assured?
When you realy look beyond the surface of Nigeria's consecutive governments, we see that in the end, they are all the same. Until Yar'Adua who himself is an illegimate president, does away with this guy. No prosecution of these mega thieves will take place. This is why this fraud of an AGF wants Ribadu out of the way, so he can scuttle all proceedings against the thieve-executives!!!!!!!!!!!!!