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UK Prosecutor Reviews Alleged Link Between UK Aid And Jailed Ibori

Britain’s leading fraud prosecutor on Wednesday started the evaluation of material alleging UK aid might have been channelled to companies linked to the jailed former … Continue reading UK Prosecutor Reviews Alleged Link Between UK Aid And Jailed Ibori


Ibori-goes-to-jailBritain’s leading fraud prosecutor on Wednesday started the evaluation of material alleging UK aid might have been channelled to companies linked to the jailed former governor of Delta State, James Ibori.

Solicitor-General, Oliver Heald, said that as part of that review, the Serious Fraud Office, was examining whether there was any indication of an offence falling within the criminal jurisdiction of England and Wales as opposed to criminal jurisdictions overseas.

“No formal decision has yet been made in relation to this matter and no investigation has been opened,” Heald said in written response to a parliamentary question.

The Serious Fraud Office confirmed it had received material from the government’s Department for International Development this February but said it was too soon to say whether it would launch an investigation.

A full-blown investigation could be an embarrassment to Prime Minister David Cameron, who brushed aside criticism at home last year to increase development aid – aimed at alleviating some of the world’s most abject poverty – by nearly a third to $19 billion at a time of austerity at home.

Ibori, who governed the oil reach Delta State in Nigeria’s south-south, from 1999 to 2007, was jailed for 13 years in Britain in 2012 after pleading guilty to 10 counts of money-laundering and fraud in one of the biggest embezzlement cases seen in Britain.

He is the most senior politician to be held accountable for the corruption outside Nigeria.