James Ibori
By Omoyele Sowore
In an effort to challenge Mr. Ibori to respond to documents and reports of his embezzling activities, I sent him an e-mail asking if he would submit to an interview. To my surprise, he responded, but declined to have an interview. A few more e-mails later, Mr. Ibori felt compelled to state his grouse against Saharareporters. But his reaction did not deter our continued investigations.
At the time of the e-mail exchanges, Mr. Ibori was variously holed up in Florida and also vacating in California, where senior Nigerian police officers on course in the US paid him a courtesy visit even as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was setting a dragnet to arrest him.
Shortly after the e-mail exchanges, Mr. Ibori’s name appeared on the list of government delegates attending the 2007 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) which featured then Nigerian ruler, Umaru Yar’Adua. It turned out that Mr. Ibori’s inclusion on the list was a strategic move, part of the collaboration between the Yar’Adua regime and the embattled former governor to frustrate the British government which was investigating Mr. Ibori’s money laundering crimes and had obtained a court order freezing Mr. Ibori’s assets. In court, Mr. Ibori’s UK lawyers presented the UNGA delegate card as proof that Mr. Ibori still enjoyed immunity from prosecution and had no legal problems in Nigeria.
It is now a matter of historical record that a series of intrigues took place in the five years since this exchange of e-mails with Mr. Ibori.
Those events exposed the involvement of several corrupt serving or retired justices to sabotage Mr. Ibori’s trial in Nigeria and to wreck the prosecution of his associates in the UK. Apart from several Nigerian judges, other actors in Ibori’s elaborate scheme to evade Nigerian and British justice included then Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, disgraced Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa, and the late President Yar’Adua. Until his incapacitation by grave ailment and eventual death, Mr. Yar’Adua did everything possible to thwart the prosecution or investigation of Mr. Ibori both in Nigeria as well as the UK.
With regard to conspirators within the Nigerian judiciary, we must note the role played by Justice Amina Adamu Augie. As a justice in the Kaduna division of the Court of Appeal, she set the stage for Mr. Ibori’s prosecution to be transferred from Kaduna to Asaba where the course of justice was compromised by a high court judge, Marcel Awokulehin, who was handpicked by Mr. Ibori himself.
Last week, Mr. Ibori’s criminal career ended abruptly in a London court when he pleaded guilty to a menu of money laundering, conspiracy and fraud offences. Mr. Ibori is billed to be sentenced on April 16 and 17 2012. A confiscation hearing is also scheduled for August 2012 in London.
We reproduce our e-mail exchanges because they lend some light into the mindset of one of Nigeria’s most flamboyant and proud public figures.
Dated September 19 2007
Chief Ibori,
Your whereabouts have been a mystery. Where can you be located? We have questions for you.
Saharareporters, New York.
{After receiving our e-mail above, an obviously irate Ibori sent an angry response via aol instant messenger. He said Saharareporters was being used by certain interests who wanted to prosecute him, and then claimed that he was innocent of the published reports detailing his money laundering activities. Shortly afterwards, a report from the [Nigerian] Guardian was forwarded to our mail. Mr. Ibori felt that the report not only favored him but was also a vindication}.
Our response by e-mail:
I think you must have read us enough to understand that we need not fight anyone's fight. We are strictly publishing facts as we know them. When you forwarded an e-mail to us calling attention to a Sunday Guardian report on you we knew it was you, but of course we just laughed it off. Because so many times those of you within Nigeria who have tasted power see life from black and white. You just think anyone thinking independently has to be fighting someone's fight. i guess you are just too used to everyone seeking direction from you and hence think anyone who dare think or act differently must be taking instructions from someone.
We have done tons of report on our website and by now we are used to those kinds of accusation.
At any rate, we carried this report about your sister and mistress being arrested and interrogated today in London. We have received further information that your business empire expands to Florida where it is believed you are currently laying low on vacation according to you.
It will be interesting to read your reaction to the London seizure order on your worldwide assets, of course excluding the Florida Estate in the Miami-Dade County. Are you going to pour your heart out to us, at least stating the facts, as you are willing to tell it?
As per your vacation, you have mentioned that you are used to going on vacation during this time every year. Is it usually done with this much secrecy? Are you willing to disclose to us your location on this particular vacation?
What are you willing to tell even in confidence about all the myth surrounding you and your wealth at this time? Are you going to talk?
Dated September 20 2007-James Ibori final response:
Thanks my brother for your response. We all have reputations in our various fields. I believe you know mine and I can assure you that I certainly know yours. YOU REPORT FACTS, AS YOU KNOW THEM.
Let me start from yesterday’s report because you raised it.
1.” Ibori's sister and mistress arrested and grilled by METPOL.” You know this is not true because you must be aware and may have published this story last year when they were arrested. Everyone in this journalism profession should know that anyone on police bail attends the police as a matter of routine.
3. Ibori was in NY to meet with AG. You know this is not true.
4. My vacations have always been in peace and quiet away from mischief-makers and Internet assassins.
You did the same thing with Terry Waya; you are on Buki Saraki for reasons I still cannot understand.
You took on Nduka Obaigbena, a distinguished publisher for no just cause.
I rest my case with all the FACTS AS YOU KNOW THEM. Can you now let me be as I enjoy the few days left of my vacation? I wish you well in all that you do as you take the journalism profession to GREATER HEIGHTS.
My last response to James Ibori:
Chief Ibori,
Our reports, I must assure you, are based on facts as we know them—and we continually update our reports as new facts emerge. In the face of what is available in the public domain, we have no need to be apologetic about our investigative reports. As I indicated in my correspondence with you yesterday, there is a whole attitude against publications like ours that challenge the conventional mode of presentation and those of us who think outside of the box within the media. That kind of thinking rings loud in your response. Only people in your class think you are "distinguished," "reputable" or infallible. For you, the vast majority of us who think differently are to be labeled Internet assassins.
Perhaps the time has come for men and women like you to reckon with the fact that some Nigerian citizens have chosen to operate outside the zombie zones in the way we carry out our legitimate duties as citizens and watchdogs. This choice includes our right to report forthrightly and courageously about the egregious misdeeds and traitorous acts of those in positions of authority.
Doesn't it matter to you that your sister, mistress and former assistant are reporting to the METPOL "routinely"? Do you not think the public deserves to know that people associated with you are being investigated regarding their alleged role in helping you to divert public funds? If the METPOL confirm to our reporters that these associates of yours have been arrested again and given bail, should we just report that they went there for their routine picnic?
I doubt that you really wanted to answer any of my questions to you. Instead, you seek to funnel to us “whitewashed” reports or accounts by your media minions and friends—about whom we have reported and proven our reports over and over again. Since you think so highly of Nduka Obaigbena, you can verify from him what he told us about his South African business that went burst.
Terry Waya has also spoken to me about his ongoing investigation by the METPOL—which goes to prove that we were right after all in our reports.
I hope that you will jettison the persecution mentality and try to respect the desire and commitment of citizens like us to turn the searchlight on those entrusted with public office—even when what we find is unpalatable to you.
I hope you have reckoned with the fact that people like you won't always be powerful and feared, and that Nigeria and the world would not always be about you, Bukola Saraki, Terry Waya, Obaigbena and Obasanjo.
Much as you may believe that you are today's most reputable and distinguished Nigerians, it is the verdict of history that finally counts. And the question is: How is history going to remember you?
When all is said and done, what manner of man would your fellows and historians say that you were?
Is it not tragic, Chief Ibori, that after eight solid years of control of power, your peaceful vacation is spent in Miami, Florida as opposed to Obiaruku in Delta State? Do you not realize that you had the power to transform your own state into an enchanting tourist address? Are you not aware of the fact that Miami provides you with a peaceful ambience for relaxation because other leaders worked hard to create hospitable conditions? When historians come to evaluate you, are they going to say that you left Delta State significantly better than you found it?
These are the questions that are pertinent, not any illicit and unconscionable accumulation of wealth. You are undeniably wealthy, but I doubt that you can tell a narrative of your source of wealth that would stand up to scrutiny. You can hire high-priced lawyers to rescue you from your legal mess in England, but can you look at yourself in the mirror and say: “Yes, I have lived an honorable, irreproachable life”?
We have questions to ask you, Saharareporters would like to ask you questions that are pertinent and important to our fellow citizens.
Regards. Take good care and enjoy your time in New York too!
Omoyele Sowore
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