Dubai's Court of Cassation has ruled that former Nigerian state governor James Ibori can be extradited to the UK to face corruption charges. Nigeria's anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has accused Ibori of stealing in excess of $290 million from state funds while working as the governor of Delta State. The British authorities believe Ibori deposited most of the funds within UK banks.
Ibori, who was detained in May by the global police agency Interpol, denies the charges. The Dubai court ruled that there were no grounds to block the extradition. In 2007, a London court froze UK assets worth in the region of $35 million, believed to have belonged to Ibori but by that point he had already left the country. Ibori, a senior political figure in Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), was first apprehended in Nigeria in December 2007.
In 2009, Ibori was cleared of 170 charges of corruption, by a court in Asaba, who had found no clear evidence to convict him.
Source: BBC News
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