Mr. Simon Kolawole, in “The wellcome Party For Ibori” article (THISDAY
newspaper of Sunday December 25, 2016, decried the massive celebrations
Chief James Onanefe Ibori’s release from UK jail elicited. `
He adjudged
the celebrations “spontaneous and sincere” but listed several reasons he
found them appalling; thus repeating the falsehoods the manipulated
mass media has been unleashing against Ibori.
In “Why Supporters Celebrated Ibori’s Release” (backpage of 1st
January 2017 THISDAY newspaper”) I relied on court records alone to show
the documentary evidence the Nigerian judiciary relied on to conclude
that the Bwari Upper Area Court judgment that claimed to have convicted
one James Onanefe Ibori was a forgery.
A case concerning Shuabu Anyebe, a
night watchman who could not account for two bundles of zinc was
doctored to read James Ibori’s and the amount changed from N10,000 to
N110 million.
I left one salient issue untouched: those behind the forgeries and
what compelled their action. The ex-convict case was the takeoff plot
against Ibori; other plots continued when it failed until Ibori was
forced to flee Nigeria to save his endangered life. But why the plots?
Ahead of 2003 General Elections, Ibori hosted 15 of the 21 Peoples
Democratic Party Governors at the Delta State Governor’s Lodge, Abuja,
and they agreed to oppose former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s
re-nomination owing to his dictatorial and vindictive tendencies against
independent-minded politicians.
From there, Ibori led the delegation of
Governors (including Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu and Bonnie Haruna) to inform
the then PDP chairman, Audu Ogbeh of the decision by 2 am. Ogbeh
informed Obasanjo immediately.
From that November 2002 night till just two days to the January 2003
PDP Annual Convention, the coalition of 15 Governors held and had a
breakfast meeting with Obasanjo and the PDP leadership where Vice
President Atiku Abubakar told Obasanjo that he was very dictatorial,
vindictive and unforgiving. Obasanjo appealed for support and promised
to change; he got a reprieve. I
told Ibori at the 2003 PDP convention that Obasanjo would never forgive
him for the “failed coup”. When Ibori congratulated Obasanjo for his
re-nomination, which came after the Governors had relented and supported
him, Obasanjo told him that he Ibori had canvassed the view that
“I
Obasanjo was unsellable, unmarketable, and unelectable, all your life I
will make you Ibori unsellable, unmarketable and unelectable”.
So, when three weeks after the convention, the ex-convict allegation
arose, it’s source was clear. When the controversial court case ended in
Ibori’s favour and Ibori went to Aso Rock to tell Obasanjo of his
victory, Obasanjo fired off a Yoruba proverb: “if the bullet that was
meant to kill a person grazes his head, the person should go and thank
God”. Ibori realized that the case was meant to kill him politically,
but he didn’t suspect other “bullets” would follow.
Anthony Alabi and Andrew Oru, plaintiffs in the Ibori ex-convict
case, were just pawns. In PDP’s lawyer, J C Obialor’s presence, Alabi
confessed; but I’ll save the exact details for my book “The March of
Justice; The Whole Truth of The Ibori Ex-Convict Case”.
Aso Rock
instigated the ex-convict conspiracy, with a serving Anambra Senator cum
Obasanjo’s boy’s direct sponsorship, with the knowledge of a past
anti-graft agency chief from Adamawa.
A single-term House of Reps member
from Edo state, a lawyer, reviewed the forged documents and okayed them
as sufficient for PDP to stop Ibori; but Ogbeh disappointed them by
insisting on only a court pronouncement to stop Ibori. And that
pronouncement cleared Ibori.
Kolawole wrote on the ex-convict case: “The then Inspector General of
Police, Alhaji Tafa Balogun, finally gave Ibori a clean bill”. Wrong:
IGP Balogun joined the gang-up against Ibori. Assistant Police
Commissioner, Ahmed Fari Yusuf, after investigation, called the Bwari
judgment a forgery as Ibori could never have been arraigned as the case
wasn’t reported in any Police Station, had no complainant, no
Investigating Police Officer etc, but that Shuaibu Anyebe’s case was
doctored to appear like Ibori’s.
Then he arrested the lay Judge of that Bwari court for forgery and
announced he would unearth his sponsors. Then someone got Balogun to
order that the judge be released and issue a second report, which now
held that Ibori was actually convicted; though no new evidence emerged
from any new investigation.
Though Ibori’s lawyers subpoenaed Balogun to
bring some documents, he totally refused. That explains this statement
from Ibori’s lawyer, Paul Milton Ohwovoriole, in court: “We asked for
Police Case File on Case No. CR 81-95. Two: FIR of 81-95.
Three:
Statement of accused in Case No. 81-95. Four: Copy of Ibori’s petition
to the President, copied to the Inspector General of Police. Five:
Report of 14th February 2003. Where is that report”?
Balogun’s representative, AIG Columbus Okiro replied: “That is not
here. We have the reply of the Inspector-General to the President of 8th
June 2004”.
That report was another crude forgery as the letter-head paper bore
the Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) National Honours title that
Balogun did not receive until December 8, 2004 – exactly six months
ahead of the date on the letter. So Balogun was against Ibori.
Kolawole wrote: “EFCC, under Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, was a potent
instrument in the hands of Obasanjo in the anti-graft crusade. The war
was unquestionably selective and vindictive — but there were no
trumped-up charges.” My reply: Yes, Obasanjo used Ribadu and EFCC as
terrorists against his political opponents. And there were trumped up
charges aplenty. The Cable, Kolawole’s online medium published this:
“EXCLUSIVE: Ribadu has begged me, says Atiku”. Former Vice-President
Atiku Abubakar says Nuhu Ribadu, has apologised to him for the
allegations of corruption the anti-graft agency leveled against him in
2006. He said when Ribadu was running for president in 2011, he came and
asked him for forgiveness over the episode which damaged the former VP
politically.
Atiku said: “I asked him, ‘Nuhu, I forgive everyone, and I forgive
you, but will you go back to the public and apologise about all the lies
you told about me?’ He was then concerned about his reputation. Of
course, I was wondering if he cared about my own reputation when he was
bearing false witness against me and illegally locking my friends up
trying to force them to generate evidence of corruption against me.
Atiku maintained that the corruption allegations against him were
politically motivated because of his face-off with Obasanjo”.
The Cable added: “although Atiku got the indictment(s) quashed in the
court and eventually contested in the (2007) election, however, Atiku
came out of the PDTF affair with the public image that he was a corrupt
politician % a perception that many see as his albatross till today”.
This albatross is even truer of Ibori, all because of Obasanjo’s
political vendetta.
Yet, the real evidence of Ribadu’s vindictiveness and trumped up
charges comes from Nasir el-Rufai’s “Accidental Public Servant” book,
page 358, in a section entitled “Umaru Asks Nuhu for Support: the
Beginning of Our Trouble” he wrote that Ribadu was so maddened that
former President Olusegun Obasanjo had favoured Yar’Adua above
Nasir-el-Rufai to succeed him as President in 2007 that he told Yar’Adua
to his face: “as far as the presidency is concerned, I have my
candidate for president, and that is El-Rufai”.
El-Rufai continued on
page 359: “(Ribadu) dusted off all the files against Umaru and launched
investigations. He was clearly trying to take Yar’Adua out of the race
and narrow all options to zero except for El-Rufai”.
El-Rufai then told
Ribadu that he was after Yar’Adua for no concrete reason but because “I
am your friend.”
So, Yar-Adua would never have appointed a power-maddened Ribadu, who
vindictively arrested Katsina state’s LGA chairmen on trumped up charges
that were later dropped, to remain as EFCC Chairman. Yar’Adua having
personally experienced the evil in Ribadu’s EFCC, wanted to end it. So,
he needed no recommendation from Ibori and Dr. Bukola Saraki to do so.
Kolawole wrote: “Ibori was arrested at the Kwara state governor’s lodge in Abuja. This is another lie!
Wednesday, 12th December 2007, two EFCC agents entered the Kwara
Governor’s Lodge and told Saraki’s Aide de Camp (ADC) that they came to
arrest Ibori. Without contacting his Governor, the ADC asked for warrant
of arrest; the EFCC officials had none. So, the ADC asked them to leave
for he would not allow them arrest any soul without a warrant.
When the intruders left, the ADC went to brief his principal. Then as
Ibori and his host could not reach Ribadu to confirm what was going on,
they called Ribadu’s friend, Andy Uba, who promised to contact Ribadu.
The three agreed to meet in Uba’s house
Ibori and Saraki met Ribadu’s deputy, Ibrahim Lamorde at Uba’s house
and when Ibori asked why EFCC agents were after him in the streets when
they knew his house, or could have phoned him to come, Lamorde replied
that Ribadu was waiting for Ibori in the office to explain matters. At
1pm, Ibori drove the Peugeot 406 car that was being used by his aides,
to the EFCC headquarters, Abuja, with Lamorde on the front passenger
seat.
Then Ribadu asked Ibori to phone President Umaru Yar’Adua. “Tell him
that I am about to arrest and arraign you in court. Ask him to discuss
with me. If he asks me to set you free, I will willingly do that. But I
need to talk with him”.
An angry Ibori told Ribadu that his threatened
arrest had gone on long enough and he would defend himself and prove
that the allegations being leveled against him were products of malice.
He told Ribadu that their years of friendship had taught him one big
lesson; that the file he usually had under his armpit while threatening
people were usually empty.
At 4pm, I issued a statement: that Ibori drove himself that afternoon
into EFCC headquarters after a telephone conversation with Ribadu. That
earlier that day, some EFCC agents had trailed Ibori to the Kwara State
Governor’s Lodge, saying they wanted to arrest him, but couldn’t
because they lacked a warrant of arrest to convince Saraki’s ADC of the
legality of their mission, after which Ibori and his host drove to Uba’s
house where they met Lamorde waiting.
After Lamorde had called Ribadu
on the phone it was agreed that Ibori should come into the EFCC office
for a discussion. I added that Ibori was yet to emerge from the EFCC
office and there were fears that he may be under arrest.
Reacting to my statement, journalists began to phone to clarify the
discrepancy between the detail I gave on Ibori’s arrest and EFCC’s
version from Osita Nwaja; that EFCC agents found and arrested Ibori
while he was in hiding in Kwara State Governor’s Lodge.
He had added
that EFCC was still trying to ascertain the role Saraki played in
helping Ibori to evade arrest. Mr. Solomon Udele, Ibori’s former Police
ADC, called Saraki’s ADC and Kwara state issued its own statement.
So
the following day’s newspapers had three versions of the same single
event; how Ibori was arrested. Kwara’s and mine agreed that Ibori was
not arrested in their Lodge. EFCC lied in its version to manufacture
reasons to convince a court to deny Ibori bail. Court manipulation!
The SUN newspaper was even misled into publishing that earlier that
day the EFCC gallantly stopped Ibori from sneaking into a private jet
whose engine was already running on the tarmac of the Abuja Airport .
Kolawole wrote the sixth lie in a single article: “Season Three, I
call it ‘The Journey’, started in 2010 when the government of President
Goodluck Jonathan re-opened the case and Ibori, in an attempt to escape
another trial, ran to Dubai”.
No, Ibori did not flee Nigeria over any
case. He left because some people wanted to kill him. Who were these
people? The story continues next Saturday. Tony Eluemunor, Ibori’s Media Assistant, lives in Abuja. (source: vanguard)
