Legal victory proved Ibori a victim of UK persecution - Aide

The profound victory which former Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori’s court victory on Monday against the Brit­ish Home Secretary was not about the £1 nominal dam­ages but the victory over just how the UK political estab­lishment sought to cage a free man.

According to Ibori’s Me­dia Assistant, Tony Elu­emunor, in a statement yes­terday, “some media outfits, focused their reports on the frivolous, and disdained the serious mocking the £1, nominal damages.

“In doing so they missed the obvious – how again Chief Ibori was victimised and oppressed by the UK government and how a Brit­ish High Court found in his favour and maligned the British Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) failures.

“The CPS’s failures have embarrassed both the Home Secretary – Amber Rudd and the UK Establishment that continue to cover-up its misconduct. This action demonstrates the politi­cal nature of the Ibori and linked prosecutions in the UK.

In his statement, Eluemu­nor added that the Judge also stated that “If costs cannot be agreed between the parties “I will make a determination on written representations”.

According to Eluemu­nor, this concluding para­graph in that judgment thus makes it abundantly clear Ibori won all his legal costs, which will be determined later.

His words: “Article 14 in the judgment clearly states that one of the issues at stake was that the British Secre­tary of State for the Home Department, Amber Rudd would not concede that she had unlawfully detained the claimant over 20th and 21st December 2016”.

Such an admission would have damaged her political status but more so, her lack of judgment and adherence to the rule of law.

“At issue here is that Ibo­ri’s human rights had been violated, but stretched sig­nificantly further, that de­tention is part of the long list of political persecutions he has faced both in Nigeria and Britain.

“The judge also found that “the Home Secretary had failed to have regard to the limits on her power to detain. The principle of public law that statutory powers must be used for the purpose for which they were conferred and not for some other purpose has been breached”.