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Drama at Ibori's trial, Okiro's camp rejects Ribadu's claims

 

THE confiscation of assets hearing of former Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori, came to an abrupt end around 3.40pm on Wednesday ,when crown prosecutor, Sasha Wass,  asked Judge Anthony Pitts to adjourn proceedings in order to give the prosecuting team enough time to ascertain whether Ibori's alleged claim that he owns thirty per cent shares in Oando Oil PLC is actually true. Pitts obliged and asked the court to end and reconvene on Thursday morning.

Prior to the court  coming to an impromptu end, defence barrister , Ivan Krolick had been cross examining prosecution witness,DC -detective Costable – Peter Clark all day and trying to weaken as  much of the prosecution's 66,000 pages of evidence as possible. And  Krolick seemed to be having some success in some areas , while Wass sat quietly taking notes and observing proceedings almost all day until just after 3pm when she interrupted Krolick's cross examination of Clark . it was at the instance when he was cross examining the prosecution witness on 'hidden assets.'

Krolick  asked Clark : 'you've said Ibori has hidden assets,' to which the detective replied: 'I believe so.' Krolick then went on to be inferring that the prosecutors have emphatically concluded that his client owns thirty per cent of Oando. This didn't go down well with Wass, who got off the bench and took permission to interrupt her learned friend.  According to her, ' by his conduct, Mr Ibori has  ownership of hidden properties,' and that the crown prosecution can 'identify two companies ,' where Ibori has hidden assets. 'The first is Oando, a candidate for hiding his assets.' She argued that if there's no link of some sort between Ibori and the company, why will Oando  transfer :'$1.2 million into an account which has no business dealing with Oando at all.'  Pitts himself wondered why Oando's lawyer , Andrew Ballie ,has been coming to court since last week if there's nothing between Ibori and Oando. 'I wonder why they will pay him money to be in court,' Pitts stated.

Meanwhile, Wass continued  and said: ' we have not asserted he owns thirty per cent of Oando. If he owns it, we will address your Honour that Mr Ibori had realisable assets in Oando.'  Wass then warned Krolick to be mindful of what he attributes to her, noting that Ibori's link with the oil company is a huge media interest . 'I will implore Mr Krolick to be extremely accurate with regards to what I said about Oando,' she added. Wass noted further that , 'the Crown have chosen their word very carefully ,' but more importantly, ' we cannot say Mr Ibori has not hidden his assets, that would not be accurate or correct.'

At that instance, Wass told the court she needed to make a quick call in order to clarify something and the Judge agreed the hesring should hav a  short break. When the court resumed about fifteen minutes later, she addressed the Judge immediately, asking for an adjournment. Wass told the Judge: 'that is not likely to be resolved this evening.There is an important decision that has to be made.'

Meanwhile, a group, Grassroot Politicians of Nigeria, has urged President Goodluck Jonathan to complete investigation of corruption on former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

It was reacting to a statement on Tuesday by Ribadu's Media Assistant Abdulaziz Abdulaziz that berated Okiro as lacking integrity.

Ribadu's man had said: 'Our attention has been drawn to the shameless lies a former Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro recklessly spewed to the media yesterday (Monday). The cause of Mr. Okiro's anger, the statement, in a London court, by Mallam Ribadu that James Ibori was instrumental to his emergence as the IGP needs no further equivocation as it was an open secret to everybody in the government circle then. If Okiro is now denying this in public, there is no way he can deny this open secret to a number of people including an influential governor from the North-Central then, and a couple of other people who helped facilitate his selection by Ibori. It was this same shameless method of desperate lobbying that Okiro, a chronic political jobber and sycophant  of the first order would use in getting subsequent appointments as Chief Security Officer to the PDP national chairman and later, regrettably, as the chairman of the Police Service Commission.

'The assertion by Okiro that Ribadu wanted to be the IGP further underlines the former IGP as a perennial peddler of falsehood. The truth is Nuhu Ribadu's focus then was consolidating on his modest efforts at the EFCC, especially at a time when he was working on high-profile cases, including that of Okiro's godfather, James Ibori. We therefore challenge Okiro to name those people he called Ribadu's friends that narrated the fictitious story of Ribadu's interest in becoming the IGP to him.

The highest distortion in Okiro's statement, however, is his attempt to rewrite the well-known and widely documented assassination attempts on the former EFCC chairman, and Okiro's hands in it all. It is ridiculous that Okiro is now desperately trying to paint himself in another colour after all the schemings he orchestrated. It beats our imagination that Okiro would want a Ribadu he was fighting to destroy to report those incidences to him. It would have been a case of having a culprit to be a judge in his own case. At the time, the trio of Micheal Aondoakaa, the former Attorney General of the Federation, Okiro and Mrs Farida Waziri, the former EFCC chairman, had created a hell out of the world for Ribadu. The only sensible thing to do was to avoid these characters and seek solace somewhere else. This notwithstanding, it is a blatant lie that Okiro telephoned Ribadu 'several times' but that he did not answer his calls. What Ribadu and other Nigerians easily recall was an elated Okiro rushing to address the press to deny something he knew nothing about. The bullet-riddled car Ribadu drove during that unfortunate life threatening incident is still there, if Okiro or any other person would want a further proof.

'On the issue of withdrawal of Ribadu's personal security, if Okiro is suffering from selective amnesia, let him be reminded that that was exactly what he did. he also redeployed Ibrahim Lamorde out of EFCC, to Bauchi State Police Command as Area Commander in Ningi. He did the same thing to other top EFCC operatives that Nigeria spent a fortune to train as investigators. One of them suspected to be close to Ribadu was even locked up for months in police custody. This also belie his statement that as IGP he could not have altered the postings of police within the EFCC.

'As for Okiro, we would like to alert the retired IGP that he is dancing naked in the gallery as his nasty record is something known to a lot of people.'

The statement alleged that a man cannot deny being corrupt 'when we all know he cannot account for the source of the wealth he used in building a shopping mall in Jabi, a hotel with casino in Lugbe and a private school, all in Abuja? This is not to mention his property in Lagos and Port Harcourt, while he was still serving in the police. If a public servant, one tasked with the responsibility of protecting the lives of Nigerians and instilling discipline in the police, managed to amass such wealth, what gut does he have to talk of corruption?'

But the pro-Okiro group, in a statement in Abuja on yesterday by its the National Chairman, Hon. Onimim Quakers and Secretary John Fiwarigoma, said: 'If we must fight corruption, then there should be no sacred cow.  Otherwise we are paying lip service and cannot make headway.  Secondly, the President should direct that the list of all beneficiaries of oil block allocation should be published in the daily newspapers; these people should not be growing rich and living ostentatious life for doing nothing while majority of Nigerians are wallowing in and dying of poverty.

'We find the character of Nuhu Ribadu very irritating phenomenon. It really does not matter to him if it is at the expense of Nigeria's image or another person's honour.'

The group listed some of Ribadu's alleged contradictions as follows:

'Ribadu Vs Bola Ahmed Tinubu: While briefing the National Assembly on EFCC's anti-corruption activities on September 27, 2006 Ribadu indicted Tinubu of corruption and described him as a looter 'of international dimension'.  But in September 2010 he told newsmen in Wuse area, Abuja that he would not bother himself with the integrity profile of politicians sponsoring his election as the President of Nigeria.  He shamelessly exonerated Tinubu, simply because Tinubu gave him the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) presidential ticket and sponsored his campaign financially.

'Ribadu Vs Atiku: Ribadu forcefully defended EFCC's purported indictment of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; who got into trouble with the then President Olusegun Obasanjo over his presidential ambition.  But instead of proceeding to the court to prosecute their purported indictment, including Atiku, he took their case files to the ex-President in brazen demonstration of eye service feigned as loyalty.  When newsmen asked whether indictment was the same as conviction upon which a candidate could be banned for contesting election, Ribadu blabbed as follows: 'We have only one government in Nigeria.  The President has the mandate of Nigerians.  And we cannot take the cases of these individuals to Tony Blair'.

'Ribadu Vs ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo:
Ribadu follows the tide of wealth and authority.  When Olusegun Obasanjo was in power Ribadu held him as the best, incorruptible and a power worthy of emulation.  About two years ago, with Obasanjo no longer in power Ribadu wrote a secret report to the American Ambassador in Nigeria stating that Obasanjo was more corrupt than Abacha, only that he (Obasanjo) was very clever to cover his criminal activities.  The ambassador forwarded same report to America.  What an insult.  Did he prosecute Obasanjo of corruption after he had left office as President and lost his immunity to so classify our president?  No citizen of America, a bastion of democracy and human rights, can write such a damaging report about the President of America to another country and still walk the streets.  A few days ago Ribadu took sides in the altercation between Obasanjo and Mrs. Farida Waziri where he exonerated Obasanjo.  Ribadu is a zero entity when it comes to principles and true to type he forgot that what he said about Obasanjo earlier is still in the media.

'Ribadu Vs Chief Bode George: Ribadu exposed a case of monumental fraud against Olabode George and his colleagues in the NPA Board.  But in an interview he granted The NEWS magazine in 2007 and reproduced by the Sunday Sun of November 8, 2009, page 47, the same Nuhu Ribadu said: 'Olabode George was never an executive officer of NPA.  He was a part-time Chairman.  It is the Executive Managing Director who runs the place; it was the MD's name that appeared in all the contract papers of NPA.  Olabode George was a part-time Chairman whose name was never on any contract paper…'  In early 2008, Ribadu went for a course at NIPSS, Mrs. Farida Waziri, AIG rtd, stepped in as the EFCC Chairman in June 2008.  On August 8, 2008, Mrs. Waziri arraigned Bode George and five others.  (About) 14 months after, she got a major conviction following a meticulous prosecution of the case.  Still, Nuhu Ribadu, the chameleonic hypocrite, turned around and said the following in an email he sent to media houses in October 26, 2009 in respect of the judgement of Justice Joseph Oyewole on Bode George:  'I salute the courage and intellect of the learned judge who has demonstrated over time that he is an exemplary reference point in the fight against corruption and for a true definition of rule of law in the country…'  Cases of Nuhu Ribadu leaking his own vomit are endless.

'Ribadu Vs Mrs. Farida Waziri: When Mrs. Waziri was having issues with Obasanjo, Ribadu came from nowhere saying that he is joining issues with Waziri.  He claimed he never worked under Waziri and that he taught her the job.  One wonders how Ribadu could have come from another command, section or department to teach Mrs. Waziri the job if he was not working under her.  On a more serious note, what job can Ribadu who was a Superintendent of Police and could not handle a small Police Division in Surulere Lagos as a DPO, and so worked his way to Force CID, Alagbon, Lagos teach an Acting AIG?  He found the exchange of words between Obasanjo and Waziri as an auspicious occasion to defend Obasanjo and mend fences with him over his secret report to America indicting Obasanjo.  Ribadu, with all his grand standing did not secure any conviction in all his cases.  He depended on plea bargaining which our legal luminaries have said is unconstitutional and illegal.  On the other hand Waziri recorded more success than Ribadu in her short time in EFCC.

'Ribadu Vs Sir Mike Okiro (rtd.): Ribadu's current target of slander is Mike Okiro, a former Inspector-General of Police.  While giving evidence in the trial of Ibori in London, Ribadu alleged, among others, that Okiro was the most corrupt Police officer he (Ribadu) has ever seen, that Okiro attempted to assassinate him.  We are not defending Okiro, since we are certain he can explain himself to Nigerians.  Records show that Okiro was Deputy Inspector-General of Police from 2002 to 2007.  This was the period Ribadu held sway as Chairman of EFCC.  If he was as corrupt as Ribadu is attempting to make us believe why did Ribadu not take action against him.  If he could take in Governors, serving IGP for corruption was it a DIG, the most corrupt Police Officer he 'have ever seen' that Ribadu could not handle?  Ribadu merely used the occasion to attempt to rubbish the name of an illustrious, detribalised, hardworking, courageous and upright Nigerian whom a majority of Nigerians honour, respect and emulate.

'Ribadu Vs Whos's Next:  The catalogue of prominent Nigerians whom Ribadu tried to hound or blackmail is endless.  Who is next in the series?

'Ribadu is a pretender.  He is worse that some of the people he investigated, haunted and demonised.'

The group added: 'Nigerians need to know who has a large housing estate in GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.

'Whose 13-year old daughter owns a house in London?

'May be Nigerians may want to know who was given a house as a gift in Dubai.

'Who claims that the house he is living and owns in a high brow Mambila Street, Aso Drive Abuja was bought for him by his father-in-law who is a retired lecturer.

'Most importantly, Nigerians may want to know who has two oil blocks in the Niger Delta area.

'Nigerians want to know what happened to properties recovered and confiscated from fraudsters by Ribadu. Nigerians may want to know who sold the properties to himself, his friends and cronies at ridiculous prices.'

The group added: 'Ribadu ran out of Nigeria into self-exile to avoid being prosecuted for his conduct, corruption and sale of EFCC property while he was Chairman.  In a demonstration of magnanimity, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, brought him back, restored his dubiously acquired rank, changed his dismissal to retirement and withdrew the criminal cases against him in court.