Former Delta state governor James Ibori, says he will return to Nigeria in a matter of days, as he signalled a possible political comeback in the country.
He told Reuters he would return within days to Nigeria.
“What happens in African politics – you are in it until you die,” Ibori told Reuters in London on Tuesday.
“I am a politician, I will always be a politician. I play the politics in my party and in my country for the good of my people,” he said after a court hearing, part of ongoing legal proceedings in his case.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Tony Eluemunor, Ibori’s media assistant, said:
“The British government had attempted to withdraw the case from court five, before Justice Garnham to either the Queen’s Bench Division or the Crown Court. Ibori’s lawyers argued that this was a delay tactic by the Crown and the judge refused to grant the transfer, insisting that the case will remain in his Royal court of justice”.
“This time, the case before the court on Tuesday was to determine the amount of money Britain will pay Ibori as compensation for the illegal detention he was subjected to when the British prisons did not allow him to leave on the exact day his prison sentence ended in December last year, but detained him unlawfully and illegally by a day, while even seeking for ways to further deny him his freedom by locking him up illegally.”
Eluemunor said the parties in the matter would make their final statements in March, and that the amount of damages to be awarded to Ibori would be decided.
“After all the speculations over when Chief James OnanefeIbori will return to Nigeria, Ibori himself has now confirmed that he would be homeward bound very soon.”