IBORI: Was it the clone?

[gwobezentashi]

Godfather Never Sleeps!
By AYODELE AKINKUOTU



Quote
“Anyone who is unlucky to step on the godfather’s toes sees his red eye. Nuhu Ribadu, former chairman of the EFCC, is a good example. …”

He is being crowned as the new godfather. The appellation is more than apt if his successes on the political terrain are anything to go by. He is said to be the deep pocket who provided the bulk of the billions that financed in 2007 the electioneering campaign of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. That generosity has earned him a wide corridor in Aso Rock. Thus, he goes into the inner sanctum of the presidential villa at will. He is a key member of the caucus running Nigeria. The former secretary to the Delta State government while the godfather was governor is today the principal private secretary to President Yar’Adua. Many ministers are in office today courtesy of the endorsement of the new godfather. And anyone who is unlucky to step on the godfather’s toes sees his red eye. Nuhu Ribadu, former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, is a good example. Today, Ribadu, the anti-corruption czar who made many Nigerians proud in the five years he ran the EFCC, has been thrown out of the Nigeria Police. On top of that he is a fugitive. And if the federal government were to have its way, Ribadu might soon become a non-Nigerian. The nation recently learnt that Ribadu is one of two persons for whom our embassies abroad have been ordered not to renew their passports. That directive came to light a few weeks after the godfather declared that he (Ribadu) was one of two persons behind his current travails.

Of course, we are talking of the suave James Onanefe Ibori. Those who have met him personally see him as debonair. He is a smooth talker, too, who has the street sense of the “Warri boy”. No wonder he single-handedly rescued that Oil City from the criminal gangs that had made it their home turf before the return to civil rule in 1999. Today Warri is a born-again city. The praise goes largely to Ibori and his successor, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. And some of those who fled it at the height of the gang wars are returning in droves. While many indigenes of Delta see him as a patriot, not a few are convinced he played kalo-kalo or cha cha with the state’s oil wealth when he was governor.

For powerful Ibori, this is the root of his present travails. He has been charged to a federal high court in Asaba for looting his state while in office. His trial started well before he vacated office in 2007. At that time, a federal high court in Kaduna was the venue of trial. He was not the only one. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo was very keen on seeing that many of the alleged "thieving" governors, who were in power between 1999 and 2007, began their retirement life in prison, but God did not grant Obasanjo's prayer. After many adjournments and legal brickbats, Ibori got a respite from the pressures of justice. The judge trying his case in Kaduna agreed he had no jurisdiction, as the alleged offence was committed in Delta State. The case was thus transferred to Asaba. And the former governor is said to have nominated the judge who will try him in Asaba. Once Nigerians don’t like a man there is no end to the evil they will attribute to him. All things being equal, like the economists would say, by the next trial date Ibori may have that looting burden off his neck. But that will not end his headache on the street of infamy.

His wife Theresa Nkoyo Ibori (nee Nakanda) and several of his associates are standing trial in a London court on money laundering charges. Ibori’s lawyers in Asaba and London have linked the two cases together. In fact, the London trial is reportedly adjourned to await the Asaba ruling. An appeal from the Asaba judge that his London counterpart should grant one of those standing trial in London permission to come to Nigeria as a key witness has not yielded any positive result. Some people are saying the request is a ploy to ground the London trial, as the accused may refuse to return to London. One line of argument those on the side of the ex-governor have made is that he was already a very wealthy man even before he got into political office in 1999. A retort has come for them: what was the former governor’s line of business and how many multi-billion naira contracts did his companies execute before 1999? There is no response yet. Surely, they are going through their archives to supply the records. However, one line of argument that the defence teams seem to have ignored is the fact that the godfather has a clone, whose criminal activities are being attributed to the ex- governor. It was that clone who was tried for stealing building materials put in his charge in Abuja in 1995. When the ex- governor’s detractors hung this albatross on his neck a few years back, the clone made a brief appearance. He, a truck driver, claimed to some people that he was the real James Onanefe Ibori who was convicted by an Abuja magistrate for the theft. A panel set up by the then chief justice to determine the real accused gave the godfather a clean bill of health. This was in spite of the trial magistrate’s conviction that the accused who appeared before him was the ex-governor. That is perhaps the result of the confusion the clone caused in the minds of the erudite panel, rather than Ghana-must-go bags exchanging hands like some mischievous people said. Having been rescued then, Ibori went to sleep instead of fishing out the clone tarnishing his image. That was a grave mistake.

The money laundering trial in London of Ibori’s associates has resurrected the clone again. We have come to learn that a James Ibori had been convicted twice in London for stealing and credit card fraud. And his accomplice in one of those crimes was a Theresa Nakanda. What a coincidence! That is the maiden name of the ex-governor’s wife. The implication of this is that the godfather’s clone has been committing crimes in his name since the early 1990s. And the clone has even dragged the former first lady of Delta State into this mess. Many are now seeing her as an ex-convict. Perhaps Theresa Ibori has been equally cloned by this devil that has a score to settle with the new godfather. That was why her fingerprints matched that of the lady who was convicted in 1991. It may all be part of a game plan, a scene in the pull-down syndrome, to ensure Ibori does not fulfil the part God has carved out for him in the life of our nation. Who says a man who governed Delta State for eight years and was very outstanding in his ways, which earned him the present clout he wields in Aso Rock, cannot himself take over from Yar’Adua when he has completed his tenure. So, isn’t it time he throws his enormous weight around with the security agencies to, as a matter of urgency, smoke out the clones impersonating him and his wife? For before you know it, the milk of human kindness in Ibori which made him through thick and thin to remain the unapologetic friend of Major Hamza Al Mustapha, General Sani Abacha’s chief security officer, will be misinterpreted. One day, Ibori’s clone may suddenly surface and claim he carried out some dirty assignments for the late dictator. And the mischief-makers will be pointing accusing fingers at the new godfather as the perpetrator. He certainly needs to rescue his good name before further damage is done.

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