Britain is complaining about obstruction from Nigeria to the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement between the two countries especially in the fight against money laundering.
Of particular note, according to Britain, is the frustration of moves to prosecute former governor James Ibori of Delta State.
Reports from London yesterday said eight formal requests for assistance were sent to Nigeria in respect of extant proceedings conducted by the Fraud Prosecution Service and Organised Crime Division of the Crown Prosecution Service.
All the requests save two were executed. The exceptions were the requests in respect of Ibori and another.
�The fact is that all requests made before Aondoakaa was appointed as AG got the appropriate response. It�s only the two made since July that have been stalled by Mr. Aondoakaa,� one source said.
�It�s troubling because Mr. Aondoakaa knows that his posture is untenable. And he is sending a signal, unfortunately, that his mandate is to protect top public officials who may have made away with millions of pounds sterling of public funds.�
British officials said Justice Minister, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa’s contention was nothing short of bizarre and a hypocritical departure from established norm.
�Under the terms of the Agreement, requests for assistance are to be made by the Central Authorities for each party,� a British official said.
�For the UK, that Central Authority is the Secretary of State (SoS) for the Home Department. Now, Mr. Aondoakaa knows that U.K. domestic legislation designates certain prosecuting authorities to issue letters of request for mutual legal assistance to another state.
�The Director of Public Prosecutions and any Crown Prosecutor are designated prosecuting authorities.
�Accordingly, they are authorized to make a request for mutual legal assistance.�
�A request made by a Crown Prosecutor is sent to the Secretary of State, who has discretion whether or not to transmit the request.
�In effect what it means is that David Williams, a crown prosecutor, and Ken MacDonald, the DPP, are authorized, on behalf of the Secretary of State, to make the request. And Mr. Andoakaa knows this full well,� argued our British sources.