IBORI: NIGERIAN AND LONDON TRIALS – Prosecution Or Political Persecution? – TONY ELUEMUNOR

 1ST HIGHLIGHT:

Did Ibori defraud Delta State? Did he steal Delta State’s money? Was

he found guilty of such in London?

Do Nigerians, foreign commenta­tors, who excoriated Ibori for

defrauding Delta state, know the truth? It wasn’t hidden and I quote:

“IN THE CROWN COURT SIT­TING AT SOUTHWARK, THE QUEEN –v-JAMES ONANEFE IBORI & ELIAS NIMBO PREKO, JAMES IBORI and ELLIAS NIMBO PREKO are charged as follows:

COUNT 1

STATEMENT OF OFFENCE

James Onanefe Ibori between 1st day of June 1999 and the 29th day of May 2007 conspired together with Christine Omatie Ibori-Ebie, Udo­amaka Okoronkwo Onuigbo (also known as Okoronkwo) and others to defraud the Delta State Government, Nigeria, by dishonestly, among other matters: (i) being party to an inflated price fraud in respect of the contract for the building of a sports track for the Delta State Government, Nigeria, at the Oghara Stadium; (ii) being a party to the provision of an inflated invoice fraud in respect of the supply of vehicles to the Delta State Govern­ment; (iii) diverting cash from Delta State Treasury to his personal benefit; and (iv) continuing to run and profit from, undeclared business, including known as MER Engineering Ltd and Kola Ltd.

Total effect: COUNT DROPPED!!! Yes, 13 such stealing and corruption charges were dropped because the London Metropolitan Police and the Prosecution said in court that they got no evidence though they (and the EFCC) had investigated the case from 2005 to 2012 – seven years. They were dropped before Ibori pleaded guilty to 10 charges such as false declaration of age or address or name while purchas­ing a property or doing so by proxy. That has not stopped sundry commen­tators from making Ibori the face of corruption who defrauded Ibori Delta State.

2ND HIGHLIGHT

Ibori’s traducers said he was a poor before becoming governor. London Courts’ documents show the follow­ing:

• Item: Bank of Austria document dated 13. 03. 1998, reproduced here, Ibori had $138, 112,112.00 dollars (yes, over a million U S dollars) out of which he transferred $557.100.00 to the US.

• Item: A letter from Washington & Christian outfit, Washington DC, USA dated March 31, 1995 to Ibori detailing out certain payments. “We have en­closed herewith a cashier’s check for the first payment under the contract in the amount of USD 300, 000:00. It is understood that you had agreed that the amount of USD $100,000 by the close of business; April 7, 1995, be paid by wire transfer to your account at Citibank in Washington DC. We propose that the balance of the total subcontract amount of USD $1, 085,000 will be paid as follows….”. The truth: So, by 1995, Ibori was already a US dollars-millionaire. And the London MET Police had the documents, too, to prove it. One of such documents Ibori’s lawyers even gave the MET Po­lice, a 9-page RETAINER agreement letter between Ibori and Washington & Christian dated May 1, 1994, includ­ing the schedule of payment.

3RD HIGHLIGHT

• Item: The charge ricocheted round the world that Ibori, though on a Governor’s salary of Four Thousand Pounds per annum…., lived large, ac­quired houses in London and South Africa and owned a Maybach Mer­cedes Benz car, etc.

Truth: From No 82 (page 15) of Prosecutions statement during Ibori’s sentencing comes this): “MER Engineering became operational…. It built two houseboats, which were rented out to oil workers in the Del­ta. It was Ibori who was able to influ­ence the contracts with Chevron and Shell and the NNPC: the state owned oil company. The contracts between MER and the various companies oper­ating in the Delta State were corrupt. 83: It was MER money that paid for the Ibori property in Hamstead, Westover Hill: COUNT 5: (lying on the file). 84: It was MER money that bought the house Ibori bought in Houston, Tex­as (USA). 85: It was MER money that paid for the deposit for the $20 million Challenger Jet airplane that Mr. Ibori was in the process of buying when his monies were restrained by the UK courts (Count 9) (STATEMENT OF OFFENCE reads: “Attempting to commit money laundering contrary to section 1 (1) of the Criminal At­tempts Act 1981”. Finish. The partic­ulars of offence section were among the dropped charges. Author’s com­ment: Doubtlessly, all the properties were actually bought with monies that accrued from MER Engineering, Ibori’s own company on contract with certain oil majors. and the payments went straight into a Barclays Bank branch in London as the Prosecution even acknowledged: 183: “MER had a bank account at Barclays in Knights­bridge. The money went from the oil companies straight out of Nigeria and into MER account in Barclays”.

Even Ibori’s estacode for trips in and outside Nigeria earned him some 900, 000 pounds. Every Gover­nor earned the same amount and the President, Vice-President and Nation­al Assembly leaders earned even more than Governors. And that was part of Ibori’s earnings apart from his sala­ry. 140: Prosecution’s conclusion: “To recap, during the eight-year period, when James Ibori was Governor of Delta State, ostensibly earning 4 thou­sand Pounds per annum, he amassed a property portfolio of six house worth 6.9 million Pounds Sterling?”. Four thousand Pounds? Who owned MER Engineering and such other businesses? And just a property port­folio of six houses worth 6.9 million? So, where did the “over $250m bandied about come from? Well, it came from Abuja’s plot because Obasanjo men­tioned it in his audaciously hypocrit­ical book: MY WATCH. London MET Police simply copied it.

4TH HIGHLIGHT

• Item: The $15m bribery (to Riba­du) allegation. Justice Anthony Pits refereed to this in his ruling, that Ibori physically took the money to Ribadu. The lead Crown Prosecution Counsel, Sasha Wass, also made the same claim on Point 220 of her sentencing note that Ibori came to Ribadu’s office car­rying $15m in cash to bribe Ribadu.

My comment: EFCC’s lawyer, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), even contra­dicted himself on this: years after he said in Federal High Court, Kaduna, that EFCC collected the alleged bribe from Andy Uba’s house, he changed the story at an Abuja High Court that determined that the money should be permanently deposited at the CBN; he said the money came from unknown agents of Ibori. And if the EFCC was so sure that it collected the money from Ibori, why did it institute the suit to determine who should keep it?

Who can explain why a Ribadu an advance notice of a bribe and he would not use any devise, even if or­dinary mobile phone, to record it? Yet, on page 103 of his book, “My Story; My Vision”, Ribadu claimed a wom­an attempted to bribe him “during a meeting in a private house and the conversation was recorded without her knowledge”. That was in 2003, so why did he not repeat the procedure in 2007?At Protea Hotel, Ikeja Lagos, Rib­adu, as Action Congress of Nigeria’s presidential candidate for the 2011 election, said Ibori did not bribe Vhim as Mr. Ikechukwu Amaechi reported in a national newspaper, and chal­lenged Ribadu to react if he had been lied against. The challenge still stands. Several other journalists, including Steve Nwosu of the SUN and Tunde Abdulrahman then of THISDAY and President Bola Tinubu’s media aide at the time of writing this book, were there. Specifically, from the Federal High Court, Asaba, comes this from Justice Awokulehin’s ruling: “Count 66 Charges the 1st Accused/Applicant (Ibori) with making a cash payment of S15,000,000 (Fifteen million Dollars) to the officials of the EFCC in order to influence their investigations and thereby committed an offence pun­ishable under Section 15(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004. The evidence in respect of this charge are the witness state­ments of NUHU RIBADU, IBRAHIM LAMORDE and JAMES GARUBA. THEIR STATEMENTS ARE TO THE EFFECT THAT THE MONEY WAS COLLECTED FROM ONE DR. ANDY UBA IN HIS RESIDENCE AND NOT FROM THE ACCUSED/APPLICANT. It is shocking that there is no witness statement from the said DR. ANDY UBA who can say whether or not the 1st Accused gave him money and the purpose for which the money was given and to whom he delivered the money”.

Yet, countless commentators lev­eled all sorts of charges against Jus­tice Awokulehin! Now wait for this: Ribadu, Lamorde and Garba wrote their statements after Ibori’s arraign­ment in Kaduna court. So? Obvious­ly, it was a made-for-the-public-after-thought to add something substantial to the empty casefile. Most notably, Ribadu claimed in London that Ibori gave him the money! Indeed, Ribadu made almost 10 statements on the bribery allegation and none agreed with the rest. How many versions of truth could a single event have?

Add Obasanjo’s addition to the $15m bribery allegation; that he start­ed the move by asking Ibori to make a restitution to Delta State, then he (Obasanjo) informed Ribadu of the refund which Ribadu was free to term whatever he wished, and you will espy a hellish plot.

Mercifully for Nigerians, the for­mer Kaduna state Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, in his memoir, The Acciden­tal Public Servant, pointed at where the money most probable provenance; Obasanjo’s Man Friday – Senator Andy Uba who warehoused the Third- Term money. Note; Lamorde and Gar­ba’s statements said clearly that Ibori was absent when they collected the money from Andy Uba’s house…and that even RIBADU WASN’T THERE, too. From there the money went to the CBN.

5TH HIGHLIGHT

• Item: Coup plot charge against Ibori followed a Presidential Death Sentence. After that, Ibori fled to Dubai.

Nigerian newspapers’ front pages of Thursday, April 22, 2010, reported a presidential death sentence: “Get Ibori Dead Or Alive”! The then Act­ing-President Goodluck Jonathan issued it after the attempt to foist a coup plot against Ibori failed; the then Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Dambazau refused to play along, and warned the then National Security Adviser, Aziza, that a phantom coup would disgrace the Army. And Ibori fled to Dubai – for dear life.

Author’s note: The article was tak­en from Tony Eluemunor’s unpub­lished book: “IBORI: NIGERIAN AND LONDON TRIALS; PROSECUTION OR POLITICAL PERSECUTION?

Expose: Upturning old lies, unveil­ing new truths, detailing the British, Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Jonathan, Ibori and Ribuda Politics and Interests; Power Games for Control of Post-2007 Nigeria”.