The United Kingdom Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal filed by former Delta State Governor, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, challenging the £101.5 million confiscation order against him, while stressing that the "very lengthy delay" in the case was entirely the fault of the former governor “in his persistent resistance to the making of the order.”

In a judgment delivered on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, by a three-member panel led by Justice Andrew Popplewell, the court rejected Ibori’s argument that it was disproportionate to adjust the value of frozen bank accounts for inflation.

Ibori, who was jailed for 13 years in the UK in 2012 after pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering, had sought to reduce the order by about £4.3 million — from £101.51m to £97.21m — arguing that money in frozen accounts could not have yielded returns.

The court disagreed, holding that the Change in Value of Money (CVM) adjustment was lawful and not disproportionate, and that the prolonged delay in the case was caused by Ibori’s persistent resistance to the confiscation proceedings.

The judges said the order requires him to pay the value of the criminal benefit he obtained, whether from proceeds of crime or legitimate assets, and that the restraint order was a direct consequence of his criminal conduct.

Ibori governed Delta State from 1999 to 2007 and was found to have systematically defrauded the state through inflated contracts and diversion of public funds, including proceeds from the sale of Delta State’s shares in V Mobile.

He was extradited from the UAE to the UK in 2011, convicted in 2012, and deported to Nigeria in 2016 after serving his sentence.

PREMIUM TIMES previously reported that, in July 2023, a UK court ordered him to forfeit £101.5 million, representing the criminal benefit established by the court, after years of confiscation proceedings.

The confiscation proceedings followed a restraint order first granted in 2007 and subsequently replaced in 2008 under the applicable legal regime. The proceedings continued for years, with the substantive hearing held in 2020 and the court delivering its main findings in October 2022 before making the final confiscation order in July 2023.

Mr Ibori’s appeal challenged only the application of the inflation adjustment to the confiscation calculation.

With this ruling, the £101.51 million confiscation order made in July 2023 remains intact.