The Nigerian government refused to discuss a prisoner transfer agreement with Britain unless the Crown Prosecution Service dropped corruption charges against a favoured member of the ruling party, leaked documents disclose.

James Ibori, a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party, is accused of stealing more than £196m of state funds and channelling 'dirty money' to Britain Photo: GETTY
By Heidi Blake 2:26PM GMT 04 Feb 2011
Britain is keen to secure an agreement allowing the transfer of more than 400 prisoners back to Nigeria. There are currently more than 1,000 Nigerian inmates in British jails – costing the taxpayer around £40m a year.

But talks over the agreement stalled after Britain refused to drop charges aganst James Ibori, a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party, who is accused of stealing more than £196m of state funds and channelling "dirty money" to Britain.

A diplomatic cable from the US embassy in London claims that Nigeria's attorney general attempted to blackmail British officials into abandoning the corruption case against Mr Ibori, the former governor of the oil-rich Delta state. The cable sent to Washington in May 2009 states: "Nigerian Attorney General (AG) Michael Aondoakaa has directly told the UK the [Government of Nigeria] will not begin negotiations on the PTA unless the UK drops its case against former Delta State Governor James Ibori and his associates".

Two months later, Lin Homer, chief executive of the UK Border Agency, disclosed to the Home Affairs select committee that Britain had offered to build a state-of-the-art new prison in Nigeria in return for the transfer of at least 400 Nigerian inmates. The offer was rejected.

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Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) brought 170 corruption charges against Mr Ibori in December 2007, but a court in Asaba cleared him in 2009, saying there was no clear evidence on which to convict.

Southwark Crown Court froze UK assets of £17m allegedly belonging to Mr Ibori after the EFCC passed a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Mr Ibori, who denies all charges against him, was arrested in Dubai last May after the intervention of the global police agency Interpol.

Dubai's highest court has ruled in December he could be extradited to Britain to face corruption charges.

Mr Ibori's sister, Christine, and his alleged mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo, were convicted of money laundering and sentenced to five years in prison at Southwark Crown Court last June.

Britain and Nigeria currently have a voluntary prisoner transfer agreement in place, allowing for the transfer of prisoners on case-by-case basis, only if both governments and the individual inmate all give their consent to the move.

Negotiations over a more comprehensive compulsory agreement are ongoing.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice refused to comment on whether the Nigerian government had pressured Britain to drop the case against Mr Ibori.

He said: "The United Kingdom and Nigeria have a prisoner transfer agreement in place. The scheme allows for the transfer of prisoners between Nigeria and the UK where the consent of both states and the prisoner is obtained. A separate compulsory transfer agreement is currently being negotiated.

"We believe that prisoners should normally serve their sentences in their own country – freeing up prison spaces and saving the taxpayer money on enforced removals."

Can you imagine that?

I can now understand why the FG headed by Jonathan Goodlock could not arrest Ibori before he escaped from the country.

WTF have we not heard about this ex AGF of ours

Is andookaaa not a campaign manager for Jonathan 2011?

Wow.

So the UK is actually trying to help us fight corruption and bring a politician who stole $100s of millions from his own people to justice.

Yet the FG was trying to let the guy go scot free?

This PDP. . .

Arrest and Prosecute the thief IBORI. PERIOD!!! You know how many folks died in his state from a lack of roads, healthcare, jobs, security, scheduled salary payments, etc.

blacksta please tell me your joking. Those two should be enemies by now.

Why am i not surprised?

[size=18pt]Yep, as I always say: Fix the State and you will fix the problem[/size]

But we are not allowed to fix the State, so I guess my question is: how deep does the rabbit hole go?

[size=14pt]The Nigerian State is one massive fraudulent op, lol, but how long for?[/size]

This pdp really stinks!!! Hope he rust away in jail.

Exactly what i said about PDP, the party itself is corruption unlimited. This is the Party beaf wants me to vote for in an election. Laye laye, over my dead body, i will never vote for Pdp in my life. What a shame. Should we still continue to say Yaradua rest in Peace despite the Fact that he try to shield a Man that embezzle hundreds of Billions of Naira? Poverty development party.

wikileaks should come and give us exact figures of stolen money in swiss account.
this one of ibori has been public knowledge since abeg

This is interesting!

The state is actually more corrupt that we think!

We can't prosecute this guy and still can't him over to those willing too, Only God can save us from this rogues in government.

THIS IS WHY I CAN'T VOTE FOR GEJ, HE CANNOT TELL ME HE DOES NOT KNOW THESE CRIMINALS, a criminal cannot persecute another criminal.


PERIOD!

[size=14pt]WHAT? [/size]

Any other sources on this??

^^^ I guess google doesnt work on your computer,abi?

Always asking stupidd questions!

[size=14pt]WHAT? [/size] 

Any other sources on this?? Anyone have a link to the wikileak?

^^^ I guess google doesnt work on your computer,abi?

Always asking stupidd questions!


Here is a link:

www.google.com

Am not surprise at all.

Why is anyone surprised? Welcome to world politics! It is cool to point finger and blame the west and what not, but truth be told most nations are just as guilty.

Aandaoka was AG when yar'Adua was in charge. It was during GEJ's tenure he got extradited.
He might be campaign manager for GEJ now but that doesn't mean it was by choice. He still has to appease his party or else they wont support him

Anyone actually seen the wikileak document? I still haven't found one on this.

^^^^

I think it was taken from a book that was launched/written by Asange (or people behind wikileaks, so as to provide funding for his impending court case)

I pray he will repent. I remember the night he called me (Ibori) from Dubai for business before he was arrested 4 days later. We met here in nairaland.

GEJ cant do anytin abt corruption cos even his wife has some case to answer back in bayelsa,so nigerians lets nt be too wishful. GEJ is PDP,the man has used Nigeria's foreign reserve to bribe delegates and PDP stalwart and now there is nufin to spend on infrastructure

Andooka, IBB, Henry Okah and IBORI where the people that never wanted GEJ to rule when YARADUA was sick. well GEJ has settled all of them with the law and I think that serves them right.

jumobi1:

Aandaoka was AG when yar'Adua was in charge. It was during GEJ's tenure he got extradited.
He might be campaign manager for GEJ now but that doesn't mean it was by choice. He still has to appease his party or else they wont support him

You are a clown. What that means is that He has settled with GEJ and to further appease He is offering his services, amongst other things. Sounds unbelievable to me that GEJ would even allow that man tag along with anything that has to do with his campaign.

goodluck jonathan can not do every thing for us,there are some appointed ministers incharge of some of those duties.let this man be before you accuse him of being high handed.gej can not satisfy every body at a time,channel some of these cases to the right offices in charge.