Panic: James Ibori’s business associates run helter-skelter as his return draws near.

James Ibori has been away for a long time now. Not that he went globetrotting the world, he went to jail, in a foreign land. He was accused of corruption in Nigeria and he was so powerful that he scaled the judicial hurdle as the case against him was thrown into the bin. But he could not repeat same in the United Kingdom where he was indicted of fraud, and he is currently facing the music.
James Ibori was the former governor of Delta state between 1999 and 2007.
Proposed as governor of Delta State, under Nigerian law Ibori had to swear that he had no previous convictions. Using the false birth certificate and passport that he had used for the mortgage application in London, he passed the tests falsely, and was elected to become the governor from 1999. In 2003, he was re-elected as governor for another four-year term.
In 2012, James Ibori was accused of stealing 250 million dollars from the Nigerian public fund. Ibori pleaded guilty to ten counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud south crown court in London.
April 2012, Ibori was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment by a UK court, south crown court for his crimes and his properties worth millions of dollars were confiscated.
The ex governor filed an appeal for his case to be reopened in a London court and his hearing has been adjourned to June 2016.
His close allies and relations have reportedly mismanaged most of properties and businesses and some have even diverted the gains from the business into personal use while some have changed the name of his organisations to their own name.
Following the report that James will become a free man next year, his family and close allies that he left his business and assets with in Nigeria have started scampering around to revive the business while some have become a regular guest in banks in order to acquire loan to resuscitate the business he left behind.