British MPs to grill Metropolitan Police commissioner over fraud in Ibori case today

MEMBERS of the British Parliament will grill the Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe over claims that Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) were involved in a deliberate cover-up in the James Ibori case.

 

Former Delta State governor Chief James Ibori was jailed in April 2012 by the Southwark Crown Court after admitting to 13 charges of money laundering and embezzlement. However, the trial was complex after it emerged that he tried to bribe law enforcement agents to suppress evidence and cover up his misdeeds during the investigation.

 

For instance, a court was told that the Metropolitan Police and the CPS repeatedly concealed documents suggesting that officers investigating Chief Ibori were paid to leak details of the inquiry that could have helped him evade justice. In addition, one detective was said to have received at least 19 unexplained cash deposits totalling thousands of pounds after illegally disclosing sensitive information.

However, when the corruption allegations were revealed by a whistle-blowing lawyer, he was accused of forging the evidence and charged with perverting the course of justice. Last month, the charges against the solicitor were dramatically dropped after the CPS was forced to produce crucial papers, which it had always insisted did not exist, that suggest serving Metropolitan Police officers took bribes.

Although the police insist no corruption took place, the case leaves its commissioner, already under fire over his refusal to apologise for disastrous historical sex abuse investigations, facing difficult questions from the Home Affairs Select Committee this week. He was personally warned about the potential miscarriage of justice three years ago and the CPS’s handling of the case, criticised by former policemen as well as the defendants, will also increase pressure on the director of public prosecutions Alison Saunders.

 

Bhadresh Gohil, the lawyer who had been accused of forgery, said: “I uncovered serious corruption but when I tried to expose this, I was victimised. Astonishingly, the CPS used the might of the state and all its resources to cover up what had happened and brought trumped-up charges to persecute me."

 

Keith Vaz MP, the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, added: “Members have indicated they will want to ask the commissioner when he next appears, to deal with the latest developments which raise a number of new questions.”

Mr Gohil, who was Chief Ibori’s business lawyer, was jailed for seven years after admitting fraud, although he claims he was wrongly advised to do so by his then legal team. He was separately found guilty of money laundering, a charge he continues to deny.