…British Police admits infraction

THE James Ibori Lon­don trial developed a new twist at the week­end as the British Police paid Ibori’s former coun­sel, Mr. Bhadresh Gohil £20,000 in an out of court settlement.

Gohil, former UK lawyer to Ibori, received the set­tlement from the Crown Prosecution Service after being unlawfully deprived of his liberty, over the Ibo­ri case.

The extraordinary payment is just the latest twist in a legal case that has led to investigations into allegations of police corruption and a cover-up of key evidence”.

All the investigators and the prosecutors in the Ibori case as well as all of its associated cases, especially the lead prosecutor, Ms. Sasha Wass, Queen’s Counsel (QC the British equiva­lent of Senior Advocate of Nigeria) have been dropped..

The two central pros­ecutors in the case; Sa­sha Wass QC and Esther Schutzer-Weissmann were unceremoniously dismissed from the Ibo­ri case in March 2016. The case was removed from the Met Police and handed to the National Crime Agency. All the original investigating officers have all been re­moved from the case.

Last week the Police paid Gohil for an infringe­ment committed last No­vember. He was expected to be released then but less than a week before the release date, prosecu­tion barrister Sasha Wass, successfully applied for this to be revoked and Gohil was detained for three more weeks. So Go­hil went to court and ac­cused the Prosecution of blatant lies to mislead the court.

Gohil, who has been seeking to have his con­victions overturned since 2012, has been the tar­get of an on-going smear campaign by the Met po­lice and the Crown Pros­ecution to derail the Ap­peal.