Chief James Ibori, the convicted former governor of Delta State, has been transferred to a maximum-security prison, the Worcestershire Long Lartin Prison outside London.
According to reports, United Kingdom prison officials in the United Kingdom confirmed the sudden transfer, but said they could not tell what informed the move. “Yes, Mr. Ibori is now serving his prison term in the Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire,” said an official of the UK prisons.
A recent report in The Guardian, a major UK newspaper, portrayed the prison as a rough, lawless facility where gangsters reign supreme.
The report also described the maximum-security prison as houses for terrorists, rapists, drug barons and other violent criminals.
In April this year, Mr. Ibori was sentenced to 13 years in prison for using UK financial institutions to launder hundreds of millions of pound sterling he stole from public funds in Delta State.
The looted funds enabled Mr. Ibori, his family and mistress to live lavish lifestyles that included purchase of private jets, luxurious cars and to own plush homes as well as apartments in some of the swankiest areas in London.
Mr. Ibori is expected to serve at least seven years in the UK since he received credit for his detention in the United Arab Emirates as well as the UK prior to his trial.
Also, the US Department of Justice recently restrained assets belonging to the former governor in Texas and Massachusetts.
According to a United States attorney, the action means that Mr. Ibori is in legal trouble in the US whenever he serves out his prison term in the UK.
One of Mr. Ibori’s lawyers, Bhadresh Gohil, his wife, Theresa Nkoyo, sister, Christine Ibori-Ibie, and mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo were all sentenced to prison terms for aiding and abetting the former governor in his money laundering activities.
Meanwhile, several sources in Abuja and Asaba, the Delta State capital, said that Mr. Ibori has now perfected plans to reclaim the $15 million with which he tried, but failed, to bribe Nuhu Ribadu, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The Delta State government, led by Ibori’s cousin and money laundering accomplice, Emmanuel Uduaghan, recently stepped forward to claim the $15 million bribe which has been deposited at the Central Bank of Nigeria for several years.
Sources also said that Mr. Ibori frowned at the state government’s move, worried that an open admission that he gave the bribe would complicate things for him.