Renowned constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Itse Sagay, in fact believes that the latest revelation may lead to review of Ibori’s conviction by the court.
The Crown Prosecution had on Monday accepted that they relied on forged and falsified documents, letters and ledgers obtained from Arlington Sharmas solicitors to nail the former Delta State Governor.
Sagay, who spoke in an interview with Daily Independent, said the implication of the statement by the British prosecution is that Ibori’s trial and conviction were based on falsehood and therefore invalid.
“The implication of that is that both the charges and conviction are invalid. If forged documents were used, then it means the whole trial and judgements were based on falsehood. And so it may lead to a review of the conviction,” Sagay added.
Another Lagos based Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ladi Rotimi-Williams, also condemned the claim by British prosecutors that they used forged documents to nail Ibori.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Independent, the lawyer, who frowned at the disclosure, said anything founded on fraud is an illegality and cannot stand.
Rotimi-Williams added that no matter how high profile a case may be once there is an evidence of fraud, especially in documents used, such a case is defeated.
“Anything that is founded on fraud is defeated. It is an illegality and the court does not have power to operate other than on what is lawful.
“No matter how attractive the case may be, fraud defeats all. Because you cannot put something on nothing, it cannot stand. Once it is fraudulent, everything resting on it must fall down.
“You cannot use fraud as a shield or defence. You cannot rely on fraud to prove your case, whether civil or criminal.
“That is the legal position, sentiment aside. Especially when you are talking about documents, that will even make it worse,” he said.
Similarly speaking on the issue, a constitutional lawyer, Chuks Nwachuku, said the trial judge might sanction the prosecution team if the revelation is established as the true state of things.
“If it could be established that though he (Ibori) disputed the forged documents but there was no means of proven that it was forged and that in order not to aggravate his condition, he had to admit to committing the crime, and if the court find out that the conviction was based on the forged documents, then the court might vent its anger on the prosecution,” Nwachuku observed.
He further stressed that, “If it is true that they used forged documents, the issue may not be for the conviction because he pleaded guilty, but I think such relates to the assets.
“I think the particular assets affected by the issue of forged documents will be released and might not be confiscated. But as for the issue of the conviction, I repeat he was convicted based on his plea, except it can be proven that the prosecution misled him to make the guilty plea with the forged document.”
And in a bizarre twist, the charge of conspiracy to defraud in the V-mobile $37 million transaction brought against Ibori here in London by the British Crown Prosecution Service had previously been held by the Nigerian courts and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to be a genuine transaction.
Part of the prosecution evidence has revealed that the letter which formed part of the crown prosecution service’s evidence against Ibori in the transaction actually absolved the promoters of the deal of any wrongdoing and intent to defraud or launder money.
This letter was dated January 21, 2009 and signed by Umar M. Sanda on behalf of the EFCC.
The EFCC letter reads: “I refer to your letter dated 15th January, 2009 on the above subject matter. Investigation into this matter is concluded and no case of money laundering established against your client.
“Subsequently your client’s accounts are defrozen. This letter is without prejudice to further revelations.”
Further to the EFCC letter confirming the genuiness of the transaction, QC Krolic further referred the prosecution to a copy of the judgement in the said case obtained from the British prosecution bundle, which sought the withdrawal of the case by the EFCC against the promoters of the V-mobile transaction and subsequently granted by Justice Olokoba of the High Court sitting in Ikeja, Nigeria.
Further, Justice Olokoba, following EFCC’s request, also struck out the case of money laundering against the promoters of the V-mobile transaction.
QC Krolic, following the documents from the prosecution bundle upon which DC Clark was cross examined therefore put it to DC Clark that there were no more proceedings (court case against the promoters of the V-mobile transactions in Nigeria).
DC Clark stated: “I don’t believe this to be true.”
QC Krolic also said: “But this is a document from the prosecution bundle Crown Prosecution used against Mr Ibori.”
To prove the British investigator wrong, QC Krolic took DC Clark to the relevant pages where the documents were contained in the crown prosecution bundle in order to confirm the authenticity of the documents.
The hearing continues.
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