Ibori associates sentenced to 5 years in Prison

The duo of Christine Ibori-Ibie, the only surviving sister of Chief James Ibori, and Udoamaka Onuigbo (Okoronkwo), Chief Ibori’s mistress, Monday sentenced to a total of 25 years by Judge Christopher Hardy of a Southwark London Crown Court but they are to spend five years each in prison.

“It’s 5 years each for Ibori-Ibie and Onuigbo,” the Court Clerk was quoted as saying.
Christine and Udoamaka were last week found guilty by a 12-man jury of various financial crimes including money laundering, mortgage fraud and wire fraud.

Christine, in her case was found guilty on all counts the prosecution leveled against her while Udoamaka was found guilty only on counts 2, 3, and 4 in the trial with case number T20087009.

Both convicts were remanded in prison at the order of judge Hardy immediately a guilty verdict was passed by the jury last week.

The sentencing did not go without some drama at the courthouse. First, there was a reporting restriction on the case, a Southwark Crown Court official, who chose to be unnamed was quoted as saying yesterday afternoon. During our first call, the official said the sentencing was moved from Court 8, which seats about 25 persons to Court 9 in order to accommodate more persons.

Nigerians in the UK were reported to have  turned out en masse in court today leading the court to move three times in order to create space for over 150 Nigerians that attended the sentencing today, but a large chunk of the attendees that had responded to the call of the Nigeria Liberty Forum to come to the event could not find a seat in the court room.

When Judge Christopher Hardy eventually began the sentencing hearing, the lawyers to the women pleaded with him to temper justice with mercy, claiming that the two women had been extensively manipulated by Ibori to commit the offences on his behalf.

For the first time in court, the defense lawyers conceded that Ibori was a criminal with powerful influence. They alluded to his pervasive influence over the entire Nigerian government structure to buttress their point that the two women were too insignificant to have rejected his overtures.

However, the judge rejected their pleas. In doing so, Judge Hardy took the unprecedented step of coming down hard on the Nigerian judiciary, declaring that the Nigerian judiciary has been usurped by Ibori. He said it is the people of Nigeria that are the victims, not the two women who lived a life of luxury off the poverty of their people.

He made it clear in open court that the women knew exactly what they were doing and therefore couldn’t be described as victims.

Late last year, Judge Marcel Awokulehin of the Federal High Court in Asaba set the thieving former governor free after throwing out the 170 charges of corruption that had been brought against him, proving that justice was available to be bought in the Nigerian judiciary.

Ibori swaggered into the Edo State capital in triumph to give a Founder’s Day lecture at the University of Benin, an institution the reputation of which was severely damaged in academic circles.

In the UK, Ibori did not find a price tag on justice.  The two women were taken to prison as soon as the sentencing ended while Nigerians in attendance jubilated outside the court room or headed to local pubs to celebrate.
Meanwhile, he is still in Dubai awaiting possible extradition to the United Kingdom.