“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future”
–Unknown
By CHIDI OBINECHE
Former Delta State governor James Ibori got a reprieve from a decade long ordeal that kept him behind bars for four years. Free from the stone walls and iron bars, the apotheosis of his incarceration reeks with the stamp and stench of his thumbscrews and fopperies – the very first of a Nigerian political bigwig. His flowing cup did not pass swiftly. It has weighed much more than gravestones. A flip into the choices he made in the past opens a rusty string of cell lines.
Yet, he pulled the levers and roamed in existentialist power, numbering among the godfathers and oligarchs, and conceding nothing to the butterflies. In a thunderclap, after raising the late ex – president Musa Yar-Adua’s hand at the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP pre-election convention in 2006, a festering growth of dirt hung, dangling, suffusing the air. The silence tightened. And a remote stink rose. He lost out to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan in the frenetic struggle to run with Yar’Adua.
And the mugs of the draught frothed on, taking over the underbelly of the battle ahead; the new time. Like a harmattan bearing anger, petitions from his kinsmen under the aegis of Delta State Elders and Stakeholders Forum spearheaded by Chief E. K Clark flew rancorously about and nested in the net of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
An initial prefabrication by the organization to launch into the bubbling keg of charges was visited with a red signal to Ibori and the anti- graft agency to drag them to court for an order to do the needful. As the growth of left-over excrement festered, Yar’Adua kissed the bucket, and Jonathan, his avowed foe and their veranda boy assumed the reins of governance. In 2007, the Metropolitan Police raided the London office of Lawyer Bhadresh Gohil.
Hidden in a wall behind a fireplace, they found computer hard drives containing details of a myriad off –shore companies run for Ibori by Gohil, fiduciary agent Daniel Benedict McCann, corporate financier Lambertus De Boer. All of these men were to bag a total of 30 years in jail. The UK courts froze Ibori’s assets there, valued at #17million ($35m). In early August, his wife, Nkoyo, was arrested at Heathrow Airport, London in connection with the probe of her husband’s assets. On December 12, 2007, Ibori was finally arrested by the EFCC at the Kwara State Lodge at Asokoro, Abuja. He faced charges of theft of public funds, abuse of office, and money laundering. Then EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu additionally alleged that Ibori attempted to bribe him to drop the charges with a cash of $15million, which he promptly lodged at the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
On December 17, 2009, a Federal High Court sitting in Asaba discharged and acquitted him of all the 170 charges. EFCC filed a notice of appeal and launched fresh investigations into his world, which was made public in March 2010. In April, 2010, three months into Jonathan’s regime, his case file was reopened. A fresh charge of embezzling N40billion ($266m) was pressed against him, but attempts to arrest him hit the rebound. Ibori fled from Abuja to Lagos and then to Oghara, his homeland. He was reportedly guarded by armed militias who audaciously engaged security agents in a gun duel. In April, 2010, he fled Nigeria, forcing the EFCC to enlist the assistance of Interpol. On July 12, 2010, the CBN governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi announced that Ibori used Delta State as collateral for N40billion loan when he was governor. On May 13, 2010, he was arrested in Dubai, UAE under Interpol’s arrest warrants issued from UK courts. He was granted bail pending an extradition hearing.
The Nigerian and UK governments worked together on his extradition to the UK. His case became one of the longest, most complex and expensive operations mounted by Scotland Yard in recent years. On June 1 and 2, 2010, his sister, Christine Ibie-Ibori, and his associate, Udoamaka Okoronkwo were found guilty of counts of money laundering in a London Court and sentenced to 5 years each in prison on Monday, June 7, 2010.
On February 27, 2012, Ibori pleaded guilty to 10 counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud charges. A Court of Appeal sitting in Benin set aside the judgment of the Asaba Federal Court, ruling that the ex- governor has a case to answer. This judgment opened the coast for him to face further trial in Nigeria on completion of his jail term. On April 17, 2012, he was sentenced to 13 years and was released on December21,2016.
Born on August 4, 1959 in Oghara, Ethiope Local Government Area, LGA. He attended Baptist High School, Oghareki, now Oghareki Grammar School, before moving to the University of Benin, where he studied Economics and Statistics. He moved to London in the 80’s and worked as a cashier at a store. He and his wife were arrested for theft from the store and fine £300.In 1991, he was convicted of handling a stolen credit card and fined £150.