Nigeria: Money laundering: Metropolitan Police yet to return evidence on Ibori

By Tobi Soniyi, Abuja

The Federal Government on Monday, said that the Metropolitan Police in the United Kingdom had not returned to it, documents rejected by a London court trying former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, for alleged money laundering offences.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), who disclosed this in Abuja on Monday, said that his office had not yet received the documents sent to the Metropolitan Police by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission under the leadership of Nuhu Ribadu, which a London court had last week held inadmissible.

Aondoakaa told journalists in Abuja that he was yet to receive the said documents as was directed by the court, pointing out that the court had also stated some conditions on which an attorney-general could either refuse to do so or not.

Aondoakaa said, “If you have read the judgment of the London court, it directed that they should return the documents to me, I am waiting for the documents, as they have not returned them, until they return the documents I would then decide on the next line of action.

“I did not send any documents to them and I was not privy to the contents of what they sent, it is when it is returned that I can review the evidence and determine whether I can do anything about it.

“And you know that the London court also spelt out conditions on which an attorney-general can agree or refuse to act, if the people have been convicted or discharged here before, an AG can refuse, our laws do not allow somebody to be tried twice on the same offence.

“If the evidence is political in nature, we can refuse; if the evidence relates to offences which are already subject of prosecution here and investigation is being carried on and there is likelihood that if it is sent over there it will jeopardise the trial here we can refuse.”

Specifically, the court had in its ruling over the admissibility of evidence submitted before it, said that in as much as the right procedures were not followed in initiating that cooperation between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, whatever evidence the British police gathered or got from Ribadu’s EFCC would not be admissible in the ongoing trial of some of Ibori’s associates in London.

On page 10 of the 12-page ruling, the Judge said, “I have taken the trouble to set out in some detail, the chronology of the documentation brought to my attention, because it appears to reveal a woeful lack of communication between the EFCC and the Attorney-General of the Federation; then there has been a lack of communication between the AGF and the Home Secretary.”

Source: Punch