Date Published: 03/11/10
Ibori’s Lawyer, Tony Baldry starts to feel the Heat
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James Ibori |
As the trial of James Ibori’s associates hots up in Southwark Crown Court, London pressure grows on his UK collaborators, with one of his lawyers Tony Baldry (a Conservative Member of the UK Parliament) being forced to deny that he had misused his position as an MP to attempt to get the Ibori trail quashed.
Using a combination of press interviews and the threat of harsh libel action, Mr Baldry has succeeded in getting unfavourable newspaper articles about his links to James Ibori removed. An example is the removal of articles from The Independent on Sunday (a left leaning broadsheet) newspaper’s website and the publication of a retraction on 28/02/2010. The original article entitled "Tory MP accused over links to Nigerian politician" covered the issues which have been freely available on the internet since late last year. Other blogs have been threatened with defamation charges by Tony Baldry’s solicitors Olswang LLP causing them to take down articles relating to this issue. In a letter by Geraldine Proudler, the Head of Media Litigation at the firm, she states “The subject of the Article is a letter that Mr Baldry wrote to the Foreign Secretary on behalf of Mr James Ibori for whom Mr Baldry was instructed to act as barrister in relation to Mr Ibori’s involvement in a criminal case”
This passage is fascinating in that it is the first time that Mr Baldry or his agents have explicitly stated that he was acting as a barrister for Mr Baldry. In letters to Rally for Nigeria and Nigeria Liberty Forum he merely stated “I have taken no action in this matter as a Member of Parliament. My locus in this case has been as a Barrister properly instructed”. It will also be noted that the entry in the MP’s register of interest was altered to remove any reference to Ibori
The letter from Geraldine Proudler continues “Please note that as a matter of English Law you are a publisher of this material and should you fail to take don the article in accordance to the request you can be subject to libel proceedings”
Strangely enough in all our conversations with the media, it was the fear of libel lawyers that prevented them from proceeding, with several of them insinuating that Tony Baldry was well known as a “slippery customer” but due to the precarious financial state of the news media in the UK and the UK’s notoriously harsh libel laws, many fine journalists adopted a “wait and see” attitude.
The build up of these stories on UK and Nigerian blogosphere led Mr Baldry to give an interview to the Oxfordd Mail on 15 th February 2010 stating
“ The Independent on Sunday by its headline and subsequent text alleges that I as an MP have ‘lobbied ministers for reward’.
This is a serious charge and completely untrue. I have taken absolutely no action whatsoever in this matter as an MP.
I have only acted in my professional capacity as barrister, properly instructed and fully in accord with the code of conduct of the Bar ”
Strangely enough he refused to comment when asked whether the entry in the member’s register of interest was in relation to the Ibori case.
The UK general election will be called soon, with indications placing it in early May.
We in Rally for Nigeria welcome the opportunity that this will provide to increase the pressure on Mr Baldry.
The actions of the NLF Rally for Nigeria and various Nigerian and UK bloggers are obviously paying off, if not why would he have employed the services of Olswang LLP which was 1 of the top 5 Media Litigation Practices in the UK for 2009.
Mr Baldry if you are reading this, stand by for a very very interesting Election Campaign
Osyman Dias
Rally For Nigeria
rallyfornigeria@hotmail.com
Ibori timeline
- 28/08/1990: James Ibori convicted of theft at Uxbridge Magistrates Court
- 12/09/1991 James Ibori and Theresa Nakanda (his future wife), found guilty of theft of a credit card and handling a stolen item at Clerkenwell Magistrates Court. Mr. Ibori was fined £300 and ordered to pay another £450 as cost.
- 1992 A year later, Mr. Ibori was convicted again, this time for handling a stolen credit card
- September 28, 1995, the Bwari Upper Area Court, Nigeria convicts a man named James Onanefe Ibori of negligent conduct and criminal breach of trust.
- 1999-2007 Mr James Ibori elected Governor of Delta State in the Federal Republic of Nigeria between.
- 02/08/2007: Met Police application for assets valued at £17million linked to James Ibori to be frozen , granted at Southwark Crown Court
- 01/11/2007: Theresa Nkoyo Nakanda Ibori arrested at Heathrow Airport by Met Police Proceeds of Corruption Unit
- 2007: James Ibori arrested by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Abuja Nigeria on charges of corruption and money laundering, released on bail
- 2007: The governments of Lagos State, Akwa Ibom State and Delta State in Nigeria sell their share holdings in a mobile phone company V Mobile (formerly Econet). The sale to Celtel is valued at $1.05 billion for a 65% stakeof which $37.8 million was realised by Delta State
- July 2009: Adebimpe Folayinmi Pogoson, Christine Omatie Ibori-Ibie and others charged to appear at Southwark Corwn Court in September on charges of money laundering etc
- Udoamaka Okoronkwo (nee Onuigbo) lawyers Bryne and Partners apply for bail on the grounds that she wishes to return to Nigeria to face charges in the EFCC case against Ibori. Application refused by Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC on the grounds it would not be in the interests of justice
- Affidavit submitted by Steven Otituoju on behalf of the Nigerian Attorney General of the Federation Michael Aondoakaa for the suspects to be extradited to Nigeria rejected
- September 2009: trial begins at Southwark Crown Court of Adebimpe Folayinmi Pogoson, Christine Omatie Ibori-Ibie, , Theresa Ibori, Bhadresh Gohil, Daniel McCann and Lambertus De Boer on charges of money laundering, fraud etc relating to the sale of the V Mobile shares
- 24/09/2009: Tony Baldry MP writes letter to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and copying in the Attorney-General, the Lord Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Justice and the Secretary of State for the Home Department allegedly endeavouring that the influence of Her Majesty’s Government to get the charges dismissed stating they are harmful to UK interest and national security
Tony Baldry Timeline
- MP for Banbury and Bicester since 1983, re-elected 2005 with 10,797 majority
- 1994 Covered the FCO portfolio for Lynda Chalker
- 2001-2005 Parliament he chaired the Commons Select Committee on International Development. Cureently chairs the Conservative Human Rights Commission, is an officer of numerous cross party groups, including the All Party Groups on China and Overseas Development. He is Secretary of the All Party Police Group.
- 2005 wrote letter to Vice President of Sierra Leone Solomon Berewa on Commons note paper seeking meetings between the director of Angel Gate Aviation Ramy Lakah and the Vice President. At the time Mr Baldry owned 439,000 shares of Angel Gate Aviation and was paid £30,000 as their chairman
- In March 1998 he arranged breakfasts for a fictitious group Asian Business Breakfasts, which served as a marketing label for the firm of Solicitors Zaiwalla & Co
- Mr Baldry is alleged by Andrew Milne a former business partner of Sarosh Zaiwalla of Zaiwalla & Co to have solicited a loan of £20,000 from Sarosh Zaiwalla
- Mr Baldry was give £5,000 by Mr Zaiwalla who allegedly told Mr Baldry that the balance would be given if Mr Baldry wrote a reference for Mr Zaiwalla to be placed on the Lord Chancellors list for a CBE for services to the legal profession.
- He was compelled to apologise to the House for failing to disclose this
- He also wrote to the International Development Secretary Hilary Benn on 14/01/2005, asking if his department could meet with the representatives of a company called Milestone.
- In the letter Mr Baldry acknowledged that he had been asked to become its chairman, but what he failed to mention was his financial interest in another company, Red Eagle Resources plc.
- In November Mr Baldry had signed a joint participation agreement on behalf of Red Eagle with Milestone in which the two companies pledged to work together in promoting their businesses in Sierra Leone. The next month Red Eagle billed Milestone for £22,060 in professional charges. And under the terms of the joint agreement, Red Eagle stood to obtain a 3% shareholding in Milestone if it floated successfully on the stock market - possibly worth about £1.5m.
- In 2004 Milestone was blacklisted in Sierra Leone due to an investigation into links between one of its directors and two mafia figures wanted in Europe and South Africa. A report by Val Collier (Sierra Leone anti corruption commissioner at the time) confirmed that Gershon Ben-Tovim, a partner in Milestone, had business links to Vito Palazzolo, a mafia figure wanted in Italy.
- Mr Baldry wrote to Solomon Berewa on 04/10/2004 dismissing the links as “tangential” thus negating the objections made by Collier and clearing the way for Milestone to receive new mining licenses. In return the MP’s company, Red Eagle Resources, received a $75,000 payment, and the promise of a potential £1.5m shareholding in Milestone.
- He was compelled to apologise to the house and Hilary Benn for these breaches
- It is alleged that he wrote a 5 page letter on the 24/09/2009 to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and copying in the Attorney-General, the Lord Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Justice and the Secretary of State for the Home Department endeavouring that the influence of Her Majesty’s Government be used to prevent the continuation of the trial of Adebimpe Folayinmi Pogoson, Christine Omatie Ibori-Ibie, Udoamaka Onuigbo, Theresa Ibori, Bhadresh Gohil, Daniel McCann and Lambertus De Boer for a variety of fraud, money laundering and criminal conspiracy charges at Southwark Crown Court.
- 28/09/2009: recorded in the MP’s Register of Interest: Zaiwalla & Co. Received Fee of £22,012.57 for advising clients. Hours: 16hrs
- It is alleged that the reasons advanced in the letter for his request are that the case is harmful to UK national interest and relations with the Federal Republic of Nigeria
- FOI requests to the FCO have been refused. In subsequent communications to online news agencies he has acknowledged writing the letter but refused to disclose content
- Tony Baldry’s solicitors Olswang LLP whilst threatening UK online journalists with defamation acknowledge that this Conservative member of Parliament was acting as counsel for James Ibori a thrice convicted criminal
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