20120417
AFP
Police were called to a London court on Monday where a former Nigerian state governor, James Ibori, was due to be sentenced over a fraud involving $250 million of state funds.

Three police vans, five cars and a helicopter were deployed to Southwark Crown Court on the first day of a two-day sentencing hearing, after reports of a disturbance inside, an AFP correspondent said.

Witnesses said supporters of Ibori, who was governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta State between 1999 and 2007, became loud and aggressive when they were excluded from the packed courtroom.

"We were there to provide assistance because it was oversubscribed -- there were just too many people to get in," a police spokeswoman told AFP, adding that order had been quickly restored.

A court spokesman confirmed there had been overcrowding and that the start of the hearing had been delayed.

Ibori has faced corruption charges in Nigeria and in Britain, where he was pursued by a police unit which investigates the activities of foreign officials who seek to launder stolen assets in Britain.

Scotland Yard says that during his two terms as governor, Ibori "systematically stole funds from the public purse, secreting them in bank accounts across the world", in a fraud worth $250 million.

Despite earning less than $25,000 a year, his portfolio included a £2.2 million house in the upmarket London district of Hampstead and a £3.2 million mansion in Johannesburg's wealthy Sandton district in South Africa.

He owned a $20 million jet and a fleet of armoured Range Rovers and spent money on fees for exclusive British boarding schools and expensive hotels.

In February, Ibori pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to launder money, five of money laundering and one of obtaining a property transfer by deception.

He also admitted conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to make false instruments, and one count of money laundering linked to a $37 million share fraud surrounding the sale of shares in Nigerian company V Mobile.

The 49-year-old is expected to learn his sentence on Tuesday.