Former Delta State governor, James Onanefe Ibori is back in Nigeria today, after a 4-year stay in UK prison.
Reports say Ibori, who breathed the air of freedom on December 21, 2016, at the end of his jail term at Bedford Prison in the UK, arrived early today at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport, in Abuja, on a British Airways flight.
He arrived in Nigeria a day after the British authorities began another trial to confiscate his asset worth 250 million pounds.
Newsmakers learnt that he immediately left for his hometown, Oghara, in Delta, where his kinsmen and political associates are holding a reception for him.
Fifty-seven-year-old Ibori was jailed for using UK financial institutions to launder hundreds of millions of pound sterling he took from public funds in Delta.
He pleaded guilty to 10 charges of fraud and money-laundering in February 2012 and he became the most prominent Nigerian politician to be successfully prosecuted for corruption.
Ibori regained freedom in December after serving half of his 13-year sentence, taking into consideration his pre-trial detention.
He will be appearing at Southwark Crown Court, before Justice David Tomlinson, on February 17.
Ibori’s road to prison began with his arrest by the Interpol in Dubai on May 13, 2010. He was subsequently extradited to the UK.
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What a nation! An ex convict is celebrated and welcomed like a hero rather than a crook. What a shame! Long live corruption!!!