The British government has agreed with the Nigerian authorities to return almost $ 6 million laundered by a former governor of the southern oil producing state. The former official was found guilty of fraud and money laundering. Reuters news agency reported.
The British Foreign Office said in a statement that British law enforcement had identified the ex-governor’s assets and seized the $ 5.8 million that had been stolen by James Ibori and his associates from Nigeria’s public funds.
However, the sum to be repatriated amounts to only a small portion of the total $153 million that Ibori siphoned out of his home country.
James Ibori was Governor of Nigeria’s southern oil-producing Delta state from 1999 to 2007. In 2012, he pleaded guilty at court in London to fraud and money laundering and received 13 years in prison. In 2016, the ex-governor was deported to Nigeria.
