The former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, is running out of manoeuvring space - after years of floating above the 170 charges of financial misdemeanour brought against him in Nigeria.
But, although he seems to have effectively left Nigeria’s law enforcement and judicial officials in a maze, authorities in another country where Mr. Ibori has business interests and has been active financially, aren’t so willing to let sleeping dogs lie. Courts in the United Kingdom slammed new money laundering charges against him last week: the charges relate to stolen funds from the sale of V-Mobile shares totalling USD38 million.
When NEXT called Mr. Ibori’s number for a reaction, a male voice asked “Who wants to talk to Chief Ibori?” When told it was NEXT, the person simply said “you’ve got the wrong number; Chief Ibori is not on this number...” Subsequent calls to that, and a second number, were not answered.
Mr. Ibori is not alone. David Edevbie, who is the current Principal Private Secretary to the Nigerian president, Umaru Yar’Adua, is being charged alongside. Mr. Edevbie, a pioneer director of V-mobile as well as Delta State’s finance commissioner under Mr. Ibori, is a fresh introduction to the two-year old case. Victor Attah, former governor of Akwa Ibom State, has also now been mentioned in the case.
Others charged are Bhadresh Gohil, Mr. Ibori’s lawyer, Love Ojakovo, who served in his cabinet and Henry Imasekha, long believed to be a business front for Mr. Ibori and currently under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
These well known Nigerians, two of whom work closely with the nation’s president, have been indicted by the UK’s Metropolitan Police and have allegedly been declared wanted.
Official concerns that one of the president’s closest aides is on this list could not be measured as calls and text messages to Segun Adeniyi, the president’s spokesperson, were not responded to.
Attempts to also seek Mr. Edevbie’s own position about the formal indictment could also not be secured. Calls to his number was picked by someone who identified himself as Edevbie’s personal assistant. He told NEXT that Edevbie was in a meeting, and that a message would be passed on to him. Asked for his name, he simply said “Alfred.”
‘Everyone is corrupt’
The last time matters were this difficult for Mr. Ibori was towards the end of his governorship.
Then, in the months leading to May 2007, a torrent of petitions against his handling of the state’s monies poured into mailbox of the EFCC.
Nuhu Ribadu, then chairman of the EFCC, in a recent affidavit sworn in London, said “I do recall that we received a lot of petitions from people alleging that he (James Ibori) had stolen money from Delta State and taken it out of the country and/or invested it in companies that he controlled.”
Yet Mr. Ibori’s alleged network was extensive as it was effective. So effective it ended up humiliating even the dreaded anti-graft agency. “James was very aware of how our investigation was progressing,” Mr. Ribadu confessed. “For instance, the moment that we went into a bank to obtain financial evidence, somebody would tell James about it.”
Mr. Ribadu added that the ex-governor displayed a laissez faire attitude towards corruption. “When I began investigating him,” he revealed in the affidavit, “he told me that everybody was corrupt and that he was doing it because everybody else was doing it.”
The trials of James Ibori
Ibori’s trial, based on EFCC charges, has been dragging on for two years, yet the commission believes it will yet win. An official, who asked not to be named, reveals that the new charges are in fact part of the 170 charges the commission initially brought against the former governor.
“What the UK is charging him with is part of what the EFCC is charging him with already,” he said to NEXT, on Thursday. “In essence, it is a different jurisdiction but similar charges. The case concerns V-mobile shares money and is included in the 170 charges that the EFCC brought against him.
“The matter has been going on in Asaba. Although he made an application for the court to dismiss the charges, we have responded restating the fact that the EFCC has sufficient proof and evidence to prosecute him,” he added.
The charges levelled by the Metropolotan Police include conspiracy to defraud, forgery, counterfeiting and money laundering against Mr. Ibori’s attorney, Mr. Gohil, who they accuse of conspiring with four Nigerians; former Governors Ibori and Attah, and the two former Delta State commissioners, Mr. Edevdie and Mr. Ojakovo.
The UK police further said that these men, alongside Mr. Imasekha, conspired to conceal and transfer criminal property, about USD10million (disguised as a loan), to a Nigerian company, controlled by Mr. Imasekha.
Shared history
The charges are in relation to the sale of shares owned by Delta and Akwa Ibom States in Vee Network (Nigeria) Limited [trading as V Mobile] between 2005 and 2007. The Metropolitan Police alleges that the accused persons conspired to defraud these state governments in Nigeria.
It would be remembered that the Delta State government, in a controversial move, acquired five million units of Econet shares from Bromley Investments Limited owned by Henry Imasekha for $22.5 million in July 2001. Two days before that, Mr. Imasekha had used $20million dollars, borrowed from the New Nigerian Bank (owned by the Delta and Edo State governments) without adequate collateral, to finance his 9.7 million units of Econet shares - half of which he then sold to Delta State.
That government eventually sold the shares, but the EFCC as well as the Metropolitan police now believe the proceeds were laundered by the James Ibori, who then presided over the state’s affairs. Messrs. Edevbie and Imasekha were on the board of ECONET.
“Not guilty”
In response to enquiries from NEXT, Mr. Imasekha denied all criminal involvement, saying he has received no notification from the Metropolitan Police.
“I am not associated with any crime. Nobody has told me anything, if I have been declared wanted by the MET they will tell me,” he said. When our reporter pressed on about his whereabouts, Mr. Imasekha snapped:
“What is your business with that?”
In Abuja, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, speaking to reporters, defended the former governors as well as the president’s principal private secretary. According to Mr. Aondoakaa, although the EFCC says that the case - totalling 170 charges; one of which has to do with the sale of V-Mobile shares - is ongoing in an Asaba court, a part of the case has been concluded and some parties found ‘not culpable’.
The justice minister acknowledged that he had received a letter in respect of a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty from London, but vowed that his response would not be positive.
“As the Attorney General of Federation, I will not release any Nigerian to a foreign government for prosecution on offences whose ingredients are domicile in the country,” he declared. “There is nowhere in the world that if I do a transaction in Nigeria, let’s says I sold my shares in Nigeria, that the issue will now become a matter of adjudication in another country. We must try to protect the country from people who are trying to get international recognition for nothing by telling blatant lies.”
However a top legal official of his ministry, who sought anonymity, told NEXT in Abuja on Friday that he “feels highly embarrassed” by the attorney general’s claims because “even a student in law school knows that Section 6 of the EFCC Act, and the United Nations Convention against Corruption, UNCAC, as well as the African Union Treaty against Corruption, all impose an obligation on Nigeria to cooperate with international partners and countries under our mutual legal assistance treaty - the same thing Mr. Aondoakaa is swearing not to do.”
Idris Akinbajo, Ruona Agbroko, and Tolu Ogunlesi contributed to this report.
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