JAMES IBORI: THE PETTY THIEF WHO NEARLY RULED NIGERIA

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JAMES IBORI: THE PETTY THIEF WHO NEARLY RULED NIGERIA From the moment Ibori was elected, he set about enriching himself at the expense of some of the poorest people in the world (prosecutor Sasha Wass)From starting off as a petty thief with his hand in the till at Wickes, who could not afford his monthly mortgage repayments, he (Ibori) ended up as a property tycoon who led the lifestyle of royalty (prosecutor Sasha Wass) The lesson which I feel that his conviction holds for Nigerians is that those who are entrusted with public funds should refrain from diverting it to private use! Furthermore, it should now be clear to all that no matter how long it takes, the law will always catch up with those who act contrary to it (Chief Afe Babalola) Ibori  funded Yaraduas' campaign and election to office and was aspiring to be the Vice president and later the president of Nigeria  advertisement ometimes, this writer partially regains his lost hope that one day Nigeria would be better for the greater majority of its citizens. Sometimes, something tells this writer that the creator and ruler of the universe is watching over Nigeria. James Ibori, just convicted, nearly ruled Nigeria. If not that Yar’Adua died, Ibori would have replaced Goodluck Jonathan, during Yar’Adua’s second term, and thereafter, he would have taken over from Yar’Adua, after the latter’s second term. That was the plan and arrangement from the beginning; that was why Ibori bankrolled Yar’Adua’s campaign in 2007, and that was why EFCC, under Ribadu, was unable to bring Ibori to justice despite the unspeakable financial crimes he committed against his constituency. Ibori tried to bribe Ribadu (to get him off the legal hook) with $15m, which the latter rejected and took the sum to CBN for safekeeping. Then afterwards, Ribadu was marked out for assassination and several attempts were made on his life, courtesy of Ibori, and had to leave the country to safe his life. But today, Ribadu has been vindicated! While, Ibori, Aondoakaa, Busola Saraki, Yar’Adua and the cabal surrounding him were planning, God was disposing. Who knew that Yar’Adua could have “kicked the bucket” when he did? That’s why Ibori today is a convicted man, and the reason Delta State will get some of its stolen assets back. If Yar’Adua were alive today, Ibori couldn’t have smelled prison or forfeit any asset whatsoever! Ibori tormented Goodluck Jonathan, when he was the vice president, and was the reason why Yar’Adua reduced the office of the vice president to ministerial level and never cared to hand over to Goodluck Jonathan, as VP, whenever he travelled out of Nigeria. But today, who’s laughing at last? Today, Goodluck Jonathan is the President and the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, and has been named by the highly influential Time Magazine as one of ‘The 100 Most Influential People in the world’. But where is Ibori now? He got 13-year jail term in a high-risk prison in United for stealing nearly £50 million (about $77 million) belonging to Delta State, and will lose most of these assets. The tabloid wrote that Ibori clan in British prisons swelled by one through this verdict, saying that as the head of the family, the two-time governor of Delta State, James Onanefe Ibori, will now have the chance to hold court over his women, lawyer, and other associates in a British cell. Already, members of the Ibori's family that are in British prisons for corruption are his wife, Theresa Nkoyo, sister, Christine Ibori-Ibie, mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo, his lawyer, Bhadresh Gohil, a financial agent, Daniel Benedict McCann, and corporate financier Lambertus De Boer. An Igbo proverb says "when an egg breaks a kernel, the stone becomes ashamed". Today, British judiciary has done a job Nigerian judiciary should have done long ago, and for that, the shame is Nigeria's. It surpasses human understand that a man who committed a multitude of financial crimes against Delta State in particu1ar and Nigeria in general was given a clean judiciary bill of health in Nigeria only to be convicted in United kingdom for financial crimes committed in Nigeria. Should the Brits come and take over our judiciary for there to be justice or do we have to outsource our criminal cases to United Kingdom to get justice? May be, Nigeria needs re-colonization. What a shame! This column concurs with Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), that the conviction of Chief James Ibori and a jail term of 13 years have put the Nigerian judiciary in bad light. Definitely, Judge Marcel Awokulehin, who freed Ibori of all charges against him in Nigeria, former president Yar'Adua and former AGF and minister of justice, who shielded Ibori away from justice in Nigeria, had not helped Ibori. In Prof. Sagay's words: "That really exposes us. Does it not? It puts our judiciary in very bad light. Which ever judge in Nigeria that acquitted Ibori of the about 170 money laundering and corruption charges has not been helpful to him at the end of the day. I think that judge should be investigated. If he has taken his job more seriously, he simply cou1d not have dismissed the about 170 charges. It is ridiculous". Chief Rotimi Akeredolu was right when he said: "It is shamefu1 indeed that while a foreign country feels appalled by this expression of bovine predilection for the acquisition of ill gotten wealth, Nigeria keeps celebrating the worst species of the human race. There are many Iboris in and out of government. We will only be taken seriously when we display sufficient courage to send them to where they belong." This column suggests that Judge Marcel Awokulehin be dismissed as a judge (for dismissing 170 charges of corruption against Ibori in 2009), and that Michael Aondoakaa be strip of his SAN title. More so, the governor of Delta State, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, should be monitored, because, as Ibori’s cousin, he once said that no money was missing from Delta State's treasury (in defence of Ibori). Now that the confiscated assets would be returned to Delta State, the people should keep their eyes wide open and see what the incumbent governor, from Ibori's village, does with them. Assets to be forfeited by Ibori, to Delta State, according to the judgment are: A house in Hampstead, North London worth £2.2 million; A property in Shaftesbury, Dorset, for £311,000; A £3.2 million mansion in Sandton, near Johannesburg, South Africa; A fleet of armoured Range Rovers valued at £600,000; a £120,000 Bentley, and A Mercedes Maybach (German equiva1ent of Rolls Royce) for 407,000 Euros that was shipped direct to his mansion in South Africa. But how and why did a conman like Ibori find himself in a power position in Nigeria? Paraphrasing the report by Nigerian Tribune; during Ibori’s prosecution, Southwark Crown Court was told the amount Ibori stole from the people of Delta State was "unquantified." Ibori, who evaded arrest in Nigeria after his supporters attacked police, was arrested in Dubai in 2010. He was later extradited to the UK, where he was prosecuted based on evidence from the Metropolitan Police. One of the counts Ibori admitted re1ated to a $37 million (f23 million) fraud pertaining to the sale of Delta State's share in V -mobile, a private telephone company in Nigeria. He served as Delta State governor between May 1999 and May 2007. Sasha Wass, Queen's Counsel, told the court that Ibori "deliberately and systematically defrauded the people he was elected to represent. The court heard he came to the UK in the 1980s and worked as a cashier at a Wickes DIY store in Ruislip, North West London. He was convicted in 1991 of stealing from the store but then returned to Nigeria and began his climb up the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) network. When he ran for governor he lied about his date of birth to hide his criminal conviction in the UK - which would have prevented him standing for office. Sentencing him, Judge Anthony Pitts told Ibori: "You lived modestly in London in the 1990s and no one, I think hearing, at that time would imagine the multimillionaire high profile governor that you became some eight or nine years later. It was during those two terms that you turned yourself in short order into a multimillionaire through corruption and theft in your powerful position as Delta State governor”. After the hearing, Sue Patten, head of the Crown Prosecution Service central fraud group, said it was a bid to confiscate the assets Ibori had acquired with his riches "at the expense of some of the poorest people in the world." Today, Nigerian judiciary is the loser and should be ashamed of itself. This column would write, at a latter date, about the corrupt verdicts given by some of the corrupt Nigerian judges. One day, all those who kept Nigeria the way it's now will face justice, despite all they have done or are doing to evade justice. The reprieve the criminals of Nigeria are enjoying now will only be temporary, that's the promise of this column! In 2009, this column wrote this: http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/ubochi/122009.html Please click to read: http://eagleyereportconnect.blogspot.com/2012/04/press-release-from-liberate-delta.html?spref=fb http://eagleyereportconnect.blogspot.com/2012/04/nigeria-uk-conviction-of-james-ibori.html Cool off with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrNitq0aH3U&feature=BFa&list=SPC08CE19717881FE5&lf=list_related THE THANX IS ALL YOURS!!!