James onanefe Ibori gets reprieve as british prosecutor

Ibori gets reprieve as British prosecutor says lawyer not guilty
In what may open a floodgate of appeals against the criminal conviction in London of former governor of Delta state Mr. James Ibori, the British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Thursday at the South wark Crown Court withdrew its case of attempt to pervert the course of justice brought against Ibori’s lawyer, Mr. Bhadresh Gohil.
Withdrawing the case, the lead prosecution counsel for the CPS, Sasha Wass QC, stated that the British government was no longer interested in prosecuting Gohil on the ground that the crown prosecution counsel had found out that Ibori’s solicitor was not guilty of the charge brought against him.

”We are no longer interested in pursuing this case against Mr Gohil Bhadresh, we could not establish any evidence against him that he is guilty’.
Speaking further, the crown prosecution lead counsel Sasha Wass said ‘My lord we will like to withdraw the case against Gohil Bhadresh’.
Mr. Gohil had earlier appealed against Ibori’s conviction during his trial on the ground that the Crown Prosecution Service had lied to the Crown court and that it had fraudulently obtained evidence against him during the trial.
He also deposed that the Metropolitan Police investigating officer corruptly enriched himself by allegedly obtaining bribe.

The Appeal Court however struck out Gohil’s appeal for lack of evidence.
Meanwhile, the Crown Prosecution Service thereafter charged Gohil for attempt to pervert the course of justice and blackmail the police.

However in a sudden turn of event, after having discovered that the case the CPS had brought against Gohil would give him access to classified information which the Crown Prosecution Service had kept secret, the Crown decided to withdraw the case.
The CPS maintained that going ahead with the case would inevitably give Gohil access to the bank details of the British Metropolitan Police investigating officer accused in Gohil’s appeal case.

Correspondent learnt that in order to prevent this from happening, the CPS , at the resumed hearing of the case, Thursday announced their withdrawal adding that they were no longer interested in pursuing the case against Bhardesh Gohil.

It is believed in informed circles that the Crown Prosecution Service’s withdrawal from their own case against Ibori’s solicitor could open an avalanche of appeals against the Crown Prosecution Service in the case leading to the conviction of the fromer governor.

Speaking after the CPS’s withdrawal from the case Gohil said “we have not seen the end of this case, we will appeal the conviction and prove that the conviction was based on false evidence’.

Said he: “they charged me to court and they withdrew because now their case against me was to give me open access to their files and sources of their evidence including their officers’ bank details which they can’t stand because it was false and corruptly obtained"