UK Officer Who Investigated Ibori, Dariye, Alamieyeseigha Narrates Experience

– We Threw ‘Big Party’ After Ibori’s Arrest, Extradition From Dubai, Says Clark

Peter Clark, a former UK Metropolitan Police officer, who investigated three former Nigerian governors for money laundering and secured the conviction of one has narrated his experience seven years after retiring from the UK Met after 28 years of service.

Clark spoke in an interview published in the latest edition of ‘EFCC ALERT’, a monthly e-magazine published by the media and publicity unit of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), where he recounted his investigation of former governors James Ibori, Joshua Dariye, and the late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.

He recalled how his investigation of former Delta State Governor, Ibori, led to his arrest in Dubai and subsequent conviction by the Southwark Crown Court, London, on February 27, 2012.

“I never ever dreamt that I would achieve anything like that,” Clark recalled James Ibori’s conviction was one of the peaks of his 28-year career.

The retired officer said after getting his initial lead of high-profile Nigerian politicians suspected to be laundering money into London, “I decided to go for the ‘top two’ – Alamieyeseigha and Ibori. I thought at the time, ‘why not try to take out the top two’ as it could have huge results, but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy and it was also going to be very time-consuming. I was ‘up for it’ as were my colleagues within the EFCC, spurred on by Ribadu and Ibrahim Lamorde [then Director of Operations].

“I began both investigations myself in 2005. I soon became ‘swamped’ with work as these top two guys had been extremely ‘busy’. Every day I was establishing new accounts, new assets, and new facilitators helping them. I needed help, especially after I arrested DSP at Heathrow airport and discovered £1million in cash hidden in his luxury London apartment!”

Clark said due to the gravity of Ibori’s case, he was directed to set up the ‘Africa Desk’ and was provided a new team to assist him.

He recalled that his team began to make headway “when Goodluck Jonathan took the presidency and the then Attorney General Kaase Aondoakaa was replaced, because [before then] we had 18 months of no assistance whatsoever.

“All of a sudden it changed and everything was back on [track] again. The other big turning point was the assistance from the Dubai authorities, the United Arab Emirates. When Ibori ran to Dubai, he thought he was being clever and would get away with it. He didn’t realise what we could do. We’ve never tested Dubai before with extradition, and it was a big learning curve. It turned out that they were really helpful and Ibori never thought he would get caught in Dubai. That was terrific, and we had a big party in our office.

“He pleaded guilty and was convicted of serious criminality in 2012. In May 2012, spurious allegations of bribery and corruption were made against me and two of my colleagues by a solicitor who was representing him, Bhadresh Gohil, who helped him launder huge sums of money from Delta State. The allegations were outrageous and involved investigations by the MPS Department of Professional Affairs. The outcome of the investigation was that no wrongdoing could be established against any MPS officer and [so] no action was taken.

“However, Gohil was further charged with perverting the course of justice, but the case dramatically collapsed at the beginning of his trial with the CPS offering no evidence.

“To this day I am still perplexed as to that outcome as I wanted to get into the witness box at Crown Court and tell the whole world what had happened, but I wasn’t afforded the opportunity. Ibori and Gohil appealed against their convictions to the High Court, Supreme Court and even the European Court of Human Rights, but all failed. This was a testament to the quality of the evidence we had established and something which couldn’t be challenged.

“Following the appeal process, a decision was made by the CPS that all the prosecution team and investigators should not be involved with the pending confiscation hearings. I had completed at least seven very lengthy witness statements and accumulated thousands of supporting documents from the investigation. It was a disappointing decision, but one I respected even though I would be in a much better place to answer any questions than someone having to adopt my statements,” said Clark.

Ibori was accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from Delta government’s coffers and was sentenced to 13 years after pleading guilty to ten counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud. He, however, served only 4 years of the 13 years before his release in 2016. Among assets seized from him by the UK, were two properties in the UK worth £2.2m and £311,000, a £3.2m mansion in South Africa, and a fleet of vehicles worth over £1.1 billion.

Before nailing Ibori, Clark had investigated and arrested former Bayelsa State Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, at the London Heathrow Airport.

He also recalled discovering “£1 million in cash hidden in his (Alamieyeseigha’s) luxury London apartment” following the former governor’s arrest in 2005. The late governor was said to have paid cash when he purchased the London apartment for £1,750,000.00. He died in 2015 — two years after former president Goodluck Jonathan’s administration pardoned him.

Dariye, a former Plateau State Governor, narrowly escaped being prosecuted in the UK by the retired police officer.

Clark, in the interview, said Dariye “had fled back to Nigeria and once the evidence of his wrongdoing surfaced, he was charged to court by the EFCC.” The former Plateau governor was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment on charges of criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of N1.6 billion.

The retired officer recalled testifying against Dariye in Kaduna High Court and also in 2016 at the Abuja High Court.

“In 2016 Dariye looked extremely worried as I don’t think he ever expected to see me again! During a short recess he came up to me in the foyer and shook my hand. I never had any malice against him as he was very courteous and polite to me. He tried to tell me that he had written to the MPS regarding his bail date. I explained to him that I hadn’t seen a letter from him, and in any event bail wasn’t negotiable. I reminded him that he had promised as a God-fearing man to return to London on the day we agreed. He believed that by writing to the MPS, it would be acceptable not to answer his bail which I might add is a legally binding statute. I pointed out to him that even if he had written to the MPS, why hadn’t he made any attempt to return to London since December 2004 as it was now 2016? He just smiled.

“When he was convicted, I was delighted that all the years of hard work had paid off. I was accused by Dariye’s defence lawyer [G.S. Pwul, SAN] of wishing to testify as I had a grievance and a grudge against him. This was untrue as I explained that any good cop who starts an investigation would have a sense of duty to see it through to the end, and this was no different,” Clark stated.

Dariye was released from prison alongside former Taraba governor, Jolly Nyame, after a presidential pardon approved by President Muhammadu Buhari on April 14, 2022.