A JURY in the United Kingdom (UK) has convicted the sister of former Delta State

EFCC grills Makoju, others over Siemens' scam
A JURY in the United Kingdom (UK) has convicted the sister of former Delta State governor, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, on charges of money-laundering and mortgage fraud.
According to the Associated Press (AP), Mrs. Christine Ibori-Ibie was found guilty yesterday of 12 charges, stemming from allegations that she helped her brother to embezzle an estimated $101.5 million from the state into British bank accounts.
Her lawyers have served notice that they will appeal against the judgment.
Besides, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which is also after Ibori, yesterday grilled former Managing Director of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Joseph Makoju and two others of the electricity outfit over their alleged involvement in the 17.5 million euro bribe-for-contract scandal which has led to the conviction of some officials of the engineering conglomerate in Germany.
Equally quizzed yesterday were the Chief Executive Officer of PHCN, Engineer G.O.P. Osakwe and Legal adviser of NITEL, Samson Olabiyi.
According to a source, the trio was quizzed for several hours before being granted administrative bail.
The jury acquitted one of Ibori's former assistants, Ms. Adebimkpe Pogoson, while a third accused aide's trial continues today.
But Ibori, according to a statement by his media assistant, Mr. Tony Eluemunor, has rejected the judgment of the Southwark Court, London, on the ground that “despite the judge’s directive of last week that every charge must be proved beyond reasonable doubt, despite the failure of the Crown Prosecution to establish any proceeds of crime, despite the prosecution’s failure to evidence any crime, it is difficult to understand how his sister alone could have been found guilty of money laundering without proof.”
Eluemunor explained that it was “a fact that during the judge's summing up last week, he expressly directed that the mortgage charges were "not safe" because the evidence presented by the prosecution had been totally destroyed by the defence during cross-examination; this fact was even conceded in open court by the prosecution.”
Eluemunor said justice has been miscarried “because though several persons were charged with the same allegations, only one was found guilty… Yet, no extra jot of evidence was brought against her.”
He went on: "It is a fact that she was the only one that exercised her right of not giving evidence during the trial; her legal team had decided that the Prosecution’s case against her was so weak that there was no need whatsoever for her to take the witness stand."
Ibori recalled that his sister, Ms. Udoamaka Okoronkwo and Pogoson were faced with the same four-count money laundering charges. The charges against the others were dropped for want of evidence.
“The rest charges against Mrs. Ibie were mortgage-related. But in continuation of the political persecution against Ibori, his sister has now been found guilty where others were rightly found innocent. To Ibori, this is a clear notice that every member of his family is under the same political attack that has been buffeting him, and that the rules would be bent to do his family members in for all the accused should have been declared innocent,” the statement said.
“Ibori said that though a mighty international attempt orchestrated from Nigeria is on to make his family members pay heavily for the public service he rendered to Delta State just because of crass politics, through distortion of facts and media lynching, he nevertheless remains confident that in the end, justice would be done and the innocent would not be unduly victimized; that is why the defence will stoutly appeal this case and ensure that real justice is done and this miscarriage of justice is not allowed to stand.”
Nigeria's anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says Ibori stole as much as $292 million while he was governor in the oil-rich Niger Delta State.
A judge in Asaba last December dismissed a 170-count fraud case against Ibori who was arrested on May 12 in Dubai on a UK warrant and remains there, but is free on bail.