{"id":9981,"date":"2012-04-17T04:19:21","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T02:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/rags-to-riches-nigerian-governor-faces-uk-jail-term\/"},"modified":"2012-04-17T04:19:21","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T02:19:21","slug":"rags-to-riches-nigerian-governor-faces-uk-jail-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rags-to-riches-nigerian-governor-faces-uk-jail-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Rags-to-riches Nigerian governor faces UK jail term"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Nigerian ex-governor in London court for sentencing<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Ibori has pleaded guilty to stealing millions<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Rare case of a Nigerian politician held to account<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Estelle Shirbon<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) &#8211; A British prosecutor on Monday<br \/>\ncharted the extraordinary rise of James Ibori from a petty thief<br \/>\nin London to a powerful governor in Nigeria, describing a web of<br \/>\nbogus firms he used to buy mansions and luxury cars in Britain<br \/>\nwith his stolen millions.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ibori, who was governor of the oil-producing state of Delta<br \/>\nin southern Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, has pleaded guilty to 10<br \/>\ncorruption charges, admitting he stole approximately 50 million<br \/>\npounds ($79 million) from Delta state&#8217;s coffers.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The case is being avidly followed in Nigeria, Africa&#8217;s most<br \/>\npopulous nation, where Ibori used his clout and wealth as<br \/>\ngovernor of Delta to position himself as a power-broker in<br \/>\nnational politics.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>He is the most high-profile Nigerian politician to be<br \/>\nsuccessfully prosecuted for corruption, a problem that has<br \/>\nblighted the country since independence from Britain in 1960.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;From the moment Ibori was elected, he set about enriching<br \/>\nhimself at the expense of some of the poorest people in the<br \/>\nworld,&#8221; said prosecutor Sasha Wass at the start of Ibori&#8217;s<br \/>\ntwo-day sentencing at Southwark Crown Court in London.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Nigerian ex-governor in London court for sentencing * Ibori has pleaded guilty to stealing millions * Rare case of a Nigerian politician held to account By Estelle Shirbon LONDON, April 16 (Reuters) &#8211; A British prosecutor on Monday charted the extraordinary rise of James Ibori from a petty thief in London to a powerful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}