Ibori fled Nigeria because the cabal in the formal president Goodluck Jonathan's administration wanted him dead - By Tony Eluemunor

Read the article of Ibori's media assistanceTony Eluemunor...
In this final article in my series of replies
to Simon Kolawole’s “The Welcome
Party” (Thisday newspaper of Sunday
December 25, 2016), where he condemned
the massive celebration Chief James
OnanefeIbori’s release from UK jail elicited
in Nigeria, I will face the sixth untruth in
his single article.
He wrote: “Season Three, I call it ‘The Journey’,
started in 2010 when the government of President
Goodluck Jonathan re-opened the case and Ibori,
in an attempt to escape another trial, ran to
Dubai”.
In this final article in my series of replies to
Simon Kolawole’s “The Welcome Party”
(THISDAY newspaper of Sunday December 25,
2016), where he condemned the massive
celebration Chief James OnanefeIbori’s release
from UK jail elicited in Nigeria, I will face the sixth
untruth in his single article. He wrote: “Season
Three, I call it ‘The Journey’, started in 2010
when the government of President Goodluck
Jonathan re-opened the case and Ibori, in an
attempt to escape another trial, ran to Dubai”.
OlusegunObasanjo’sAso Rock had spent its entire
second term setting traps for Ibori, but he was
re-elected, was not impeached, and completed
his tenure. The first obstacle was that Ibori’s
name mysteriously disappeared from the list of
those cleared to contest the 2003 elections, which
was displayed at Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) headquarters, Abuja on a
Saturday. The then INEC Secretary, Dr. Hakeem
Baba-Ahmed, was in charge as Dr. Abel Guobadia
had travelled to Benin for the weekend. I called
Guobadia in Benin, and he denied that INEC
stopped Ibori; he addressed the press in Benin
the following day to insist that Ibori was cleared.
Today, Baba-Ahmed is a columnist that
pontificates on right and wrong, and I laugh,
knowing that talk is cheap.
The next attack was the ex-convict court
judgment forgery. That too failed to fly. Then after
Ibori had completed his two terms of office, as
Delta State Governor, Mr. NuhuRibadu stepped in
to stop his forward match in Nigerian politics. He
arrested and arraigned Ibori in Federal High Court,
Kaduna. Why Kaduna? Forum shopping is the
answer! Between Asaba and Kaduna, there are
well over eighteen Federal High Courts starting
from the Benin Division of the Federal High Court.
That is a story for another day. His real weapon
was to keep an accused in Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) custody and
torture him until he would choose either to die or
plead guilty. D.S.P Alamieyeseigha got this
treatment and he was counseled by several
people to plead guilty and live. My witness here
is no less a person than former President
Goodluck Jonathan himself. He met with
Alamieyesiagha at the Vice President’s Lodge,
Marina, Lagos, and convinced him to plead guilty.
Jonathan, on that occasion, was an emissary of
late President UmaruYar’Adua’s, who promised
to grant Alamieyeseigha state pardon because he
was convinced that he was a victim of a witch
hunt.
What pained Yar’Adua the most was that
Alamieyeseigha was accused of purchasing
Chelsea Hotel, , Abuja, for himself, when it was
bought for Bayelsa State. If this is true, then only
God can understand why Jonathan who was
Alamieyesiegha’s deputy did not correct this
impression, even when he became President. Till
today, that hotel lies totally fallow!
Iboriescaped Ribadu’s deadly plot by requesting
the court to remand him in Kaduna prison. What
followed; that it took the Judge two complete
months to decide whether to grant Ibori bail is a
sign of what had been plotted for him. Ibori
would have been given the Alamieyeseigha
treatment, denied bail; trial would have stalled
indefinitely, until he would be forced to plead
guilty.
May 2010, things had changed drastically.
Jonathan was now President, and after Jonathan
had declared that Ibori should be arrested DEAD
or ALIVE, as newspapers widely reported, his
administration attempted to slap a coup d’état
charge against Ibori; a charge whose punishment
is death.
Pretentious investigations actually began after
which arrests would follow. The Chief Apostle of
that plot from hell was Jonathan’s one-time
National Security Adviser (NSA) late Gen. Owoye
Andrew Azazi followed by the then Chief of
Defence Staff, Air Marshal Paul Dike whom late
Azazi reported the fake intelligence to; the two
then went to work onthe then Chief of Army Sfaff.
Azazi had already set plans in motion before he
told Ibori’s brother, friend and comrade Chief
D.S.P Alamiesiegha who then dragged him to see
Ibori in Lagos to repeat his allegation to him face
to face. What delayed their planned arrest of Ibori
was the stance of the then Chief of Army Staff,
Gen Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau (the present
Interior Minister) who refused to join in that
devilish plot. He told them that they could not
make a coup plot against Ibori stick without
dragging in some innocent soldiers. He said to
Azazi: “Sir, you have been everything in the Army,
including its head. So, why will you destroy the
Army just because you want to rope in a
politician into a non-existent coup plot? How
many troops are under Ibori? Were he to
contemplate a coup plot, would he, a bloody
civilian, even know who to recruit? Would Ibori
not prefer to wait for the next election and work
against the re-election of a sitting President,
which you and I know he has the power to do?
To make this thing stick, you know you have to
rope in a lot of innocent soldiers, and destroy
many families – all because of politics. You and I
know that no real intelligence report has brought
this up or fingered Ibori. Sir, if you want to take
him out, find other ways to do it but don’t involve
any innocent soldier; no officer, no troop, under
me.”
Then he promised to talk with Ibori. On leaving
General Dambazau, the lawyer who accompanied
Ibori to that meeting advised him to leave Nigeria
if he wanted to remain alive. Ibori did not return
to his house, which by then was being watched
by strange faces: without getting home to collect
anything, he left Nigeria for Dubai, where he did
not bother to hide but stayed in a hotel to
contemplate his next move.
Just one more thing, before we close this
chapter; last Monday, Dr. Patrick Dele Cole,
Obasanjo’s former Special Adviser, International
Relations, published “Return of James Ibori” in
the Vanguard. He bore witness to what I wrote
last week that Obasanjo declared an all-out war
against Ibori, using the Federal Government,
EFCC, the Police, the diplomatic trail and heaps
and heaps of lies. Cole granted this much:
“(Ibori’s) achievements are considerable”, “he
belonged to the club of rich men; though he was
fantastically generous and he carried himself as a
successful rich man. James Ibori, like most PDP
members, did not believe that General
OlusegunObasanjo, OBJ, would want a second
term. Ibori had said electing OBJ for second term
was unwise and that OBJ was unelectable. This is
why OBJ had it in for Ibori who had led the
movement to stop Obasanjo’s second term bid
because that was the original agreement at the
time of recruiting OBJ to run in 1999. OBJ was to
be President for only one term, so even the third
term proposal was unaccepted”.
“Have it in for Ibori” is an idiom, meaning “to
persistently try or desire to criticize, cause harm
to, or harass someone, especially due to a
grudge”. So, the truth is that it was not an anti-
corruption fight that led to Obasanjo’s misuse of
the EFCC to hound Ibori; it was Ibori’s opposition
to Obasanjo’s crudity which was giving politics a
bad name, according to Cole, Obasanjo’sUnder
Secretary in Dodan Barracks, Lagos, whom
Obasanjo appointed Daily Times M.D in 1976,
1987 -1990 Ambassador to Brazil and who
returned as Obasanjo’sAdviser inAso Rock, Abuja
in 1999. And when Cole wrote that “Ibori led the
Southern revolt” he should know what he was
talking about. Often, he was the one Obasanjo
sent, whenever the 1999 – 2007 set of South-
South Governors metto advance the Fiscal
Federalism (Resource Control) course, to whittle
down the effect of any collective stance.
Unfortunately, Cole is from the South-South.
Rather than reveling in the witness of Dr. Cole
(PhD, Cambridge) that I wrote the truth in my last
article, I mentioned him for thedeceptive
philosophy in his essay’s introduction and
conclusion. His intro: “HIS (Ibori’s) achievements
are as considerable as his background is
somewhat murky and unclear”. So, right from the
first line, he had to detract from Ibori’s
achievements by bringing in unclear and murky
background. How does Dr. Cole define murky and
unclear? Would he agree that some things about
himself are really “murky and unclear”? When
Obasanjo dropped him, only Aso Rock insiders
knew it was because of an oily business
concerning Sahara Oil and Ghana. Does that
make Cole’s life murky and unclear ever after? I
don’t think so.
Ambassador Patrick Dele Cole and Chief YomiEdu
are two people that can testify to how most of the
PDP Governors of 1999-2007 spent their own
resources in their various states to get Obasanjo
and the PDP in power. Most of them were men of
means before contesting for the position in their
various states. That is one admission he makes
and probably accounts for PDP’s solid structure
in Delta State today.
His concluding paragraph: Showing his angst at
the heroic welcome Lagos crowds accorded the
late Biafran leader Chief EmekaOdumegwu –
Ojukwu on his return from exile and the one Ibori
is sure to receive, he asked a totally illogical
question: “What if at the end of the World War II,
Hitler was to come back to Germany, what would
be Germany’s reaction”? Hitler was the aggressor
in the Second World War. That some people still
believe in his Nazism, Aryan race and anti-
Semitism nonsense has no bearing with the Ibori
issue, which is strictly that of government’s
forgery of indictments against him. The example
of the most publicly known charge against Ibori,
the $15m bribery allegation, will do: Ibori was not
asked about it when EFCC questioned him on July
4th 2007. It was never mentioned while he was
being questioned after his arrest on 10th
December 2007; EFCC never questioned Ibori at
all on it. So Ibori never made any statement
about it.
Interestingly, Ibori was arraigned at the Federal
High Court in Kaduna on December 11, 2007, but
the three statements about that bribe allegation –
Ribadu’s, Lamorde’s and James Garba’s were
dated December 12, 2007. That is, two days after
Ibori’s arrest and a day after he was arraigned in
court.
Such leaves doubts in Ibori’s follower’s minds –
doubts about the money’s origin, Senator Uba’s
role, etc. Uba himself would later issue a press
statement saying Ibori handed out the money in
his presence and house but he was ignorant of
the reason for that transaction. Thus Uba, a
Senator of the Federal Republic, was contradicting
Ibrahim Lamorde and James Garba, who said in
their police statements that when they collected
the money from Uba’s houseIbori was not there,
and that Andy Uba’s aides brought out the
money. That is yet another set of contradictions
in the various statements as though all the
accusers have been condemned by an unknown
force never to agree on any material particular
except on the name Ibori. Ribadu himself has
made some five statements and all contradicted
every other one! And if Ibori handed out the
money, in Uba’s presence, why did EFCC lawyer,
Mr. Rotimi Jacobs say in open court that the
money came from IBORI’S UNKNOWN AGENTS?
Hey, how many versions should truth have? The
real truth will come out one day.
For lack of space I’ll reserve my expose of all the
lies in Ribadu’s several statements as well as in
those of Lamorde and James Garbafor next
week.
Coles last statement: “One thing is clear; Ibori’s
arrival in Delta will change the political dynamics
of Delta State and thereby of South-South.”
Wrong: Delta state and South-South politics never
changed; the people have remained loyal to
Ibori’s leadership though he has and remains
absent from home for almost a decade. This is
truly remarkable! Cole may not understand this;
just as he did not understand Ndigbo’s ever
enchantment by Ojukwu. May it never be
forgotten that Ibori has not yet returned, yet he is
causing this entire ripple. This is because the
South-South celebrates the grace of God which
kept their hero alive despite all the devilish
machinations against him which began during
Nigeria’s, no, Obasanjo’s, era of brigandage,
gangsterism and banditry which claimed the lives
of Bola Ige, A.K Dikibo, Harry Marshal,
ChubaOkadigbi, DSP Alamieyesigha, and
countless others. And none stood as stoutly in
the turf of battle as the Odidigboigbo himself.
Tony Eluemunor is Ibori’s Media Assistant.