The Nigerian Government refused to discuss a prisoner transfer agreement with Britain unless the Crown Prosecution Service dropped corruption charges against a favoured member of the ruling party, documents leaked by WikiLeaks disclose.
The Telegraph reports that a diplomatic cable from the US embassy in London claims that Nigeria’s Attorney-General attempted to blackmail British officials into abandoning the corruption case against James Ibori, the former Governor of the oil-rich Delta state, who is accused of stealing more than £196m of state funds and channelling ‘dirty money’ to Britain. The report notes that Britain is keen to secure an agreement allowing the transfer of more than 400 prisoners back to Nigeria but talks over the agreement stalled after Britain refused to drop charges against Ibori. The report says Ibori denies all charges against him.