V.Mobile Share Scam: Ibori’s Lawyer Jailed In UK

Counsel to former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori, in the United Kingdom, Bhadresh Gohil, was yesterday jailed seven years after he was found guilty on an eight count charge of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering.

Judge Christopher Hardy sitting at a packed Southwark Crown Court told Ibori’s lawyer: “You have brought shame on your family, your profession and your country.”

The judge therefore sentenced him to seven years imprisonment on the first count, three years on the second count, five years on count three while he was jailed three years on counts four to eight.

Gohil was already in custody at Wandsworth Prison following the conclusion of another trial involving Ibori’s wife, sister and mistress.

Sentencing the lawyer, Judge Hardy further remarked: “You were a solicitor of the Supreme Court and holding out as a man of integrity.

“It is said the real villains are in Nigeria but this fraud required special expertise and you lent yourself to it”.

He said lawyer Gohil was the architect and the predicate offender in a thoroughly dishonest scheme which had been devised to divert resources of Nigerian state funds into private pockets through the sale of V-Mobile shares.

The court recalled that in 2005 while Ibori was governor of Delta State and Obong Victor Attah, governor of Akwa Ibom State, both men used their positions as board members of V-Mobile to divert public funds into their own coffers.

Other Nigerian officials accused in the V-Mobile shares scam includes Ibori, Victor Attah, David Edevbie, a former Principal Secretary to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, Love Ojakovo, a former Finance Commissioner under Ibori and Henry Imasheka, a business associate of Ibori.

Wife of Ibori, Theresa Nkoyo, had been convicted and sentenced to five years in prison by a Southwark Crown court in London, United Kingdom, on two counts related to money laundering. She is now serving her jail term in Holloway Prison in north London.

The London Metropolitan Police had on 1 November 1, 2007 arrested Mrs Ibori. She was picked up at the Heathrow Airport in London.

Mrs Ibori and her husband had been a target of an extensive money laundering investigation by British law enforcement.

After her arrest, Andrew Newman of the Metropolitan Police press office issued a short statement that reads: “At approximately 20.50hrs on November 1, 2007 officers from the Proceeds of Corruption Unit arrested a 39-year-old woman at Heathrow airport in connection with an ongoing money laundering enquiry. She remains in custody at a West London police station.”

The court had earlier jailed Ibori’s sister, Christine Ibori-Ibie; and his mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo-Onuigbo for a similar offence.

Ibori himself is likely to be extradited to the UK to face three set of trials relating to money laundering and alleged theft of Delta State resources.

He is still in Dubai where he escaped to when Nigerian security officials attempted to arrest him last year.