Jun.08, 2010, 01:17

Christine Ibori-Ibie and Udoamaka Okoronkwo-Onuigbo, sister and aide of former Delta State Governor James Ibori, respectively, were on Monday in London sentenced to 21 years in prison for their roles in the former governor’s alleged corruption activities in the United Kingdom, SaharaReporters has said. Concurrently, they are to spend five years in prison.

The sentencing followed the guilty verdicts handed down by a jury, last week, at the Southwark Crown Court in London after the two women were found guilty of money laundering and mortgage fraud. A third accused person, Bimpe Pogoson, who was Ibori’s personal assistant, was discharged and acquitted by the jury.

Ibori’s sister, Christine Ibori-Ibie was found guilty of 9 counts of money laundering and mortgage fraud. Okoronkwo-Onuigbo got her five years in prison for money laundering. The two women were accused and subsequently convicted of handling proceeds of criminal transactions on behalf of Ibori while he was governor of Delta State. When Judge Christopher Hardy 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.

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 the 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, Asaba set the former governor free after throwing out 170 charges of corruption that had been brought against him.

It would be recalled that former Governor James Ibori was arrested in Dubai on May 12 as part of British efforts to secure his extradition on charges of alleged money-laundering. London’s Metropolitan Police said Ibori was arrested at the UK force’s request “on suspicion of money-laundering and conspiracy to defraud”.

“The UK authorities are seeking extradition,” the police said. In August 2007, the UK froze assets relating to Ibori worth $35 million, more than 100 times his annual salary as a governor. Later that year, he was held in connection with charges that he allegedly stole $85 million during his governorship.