Some 13 years ago, one Nigerian lawyer, Odiari, did everything to convince all of us that the flamboyant James Onanefe Ibori was not worthy of occupying the exalted office of a state governor. He based his argument on the fact that the young man in question was once convicted by an area court in Abuja of stealing a reasonable quantity of building materials. I cannot remember whether it was by direct stealing or conversion. The case experienced several curious twists and turns and ended up on appeal.
While the learned judges agreed that ‘one James Onanefe Ibori’ was indeed convicted by the said court of the said offences, it was held that that one James Onanefe Ibori was not the same with the James Onanefe Ibori (JOI) in contention. He went on to become a two-term governor of Delta State. Eventually, we also read reports of credit card frauds and petty thefts committed overseas by the same ‘one JOI’, alone and/or in company of his wife, but these crimes were not by this JOI, and life went on.
One day, the 8 years tenure ended and the distinction between ‘one JOI’ and ‘this JOI’ continued, but somehow, as it is in the nature of the affairs of men, a discordant tone set in. This JOI was arrested, detained briefly (the usual EFCC trial-by-media), and slammed with almost 200-count charges. Following some legal gymnastics, a Federal High Court was speedily established in Asaba and its first major achievement was to acquit JOI of all the charges – all of them.
This JOI was so clean and was indeed a living saint – so said the judge. But gradually, one plus one started yielding anything but two! Nkoyo, JOI’s wife, was jailed 5 years by Southwark Crown Court for money laundering on November 22, 2010. Subsequently, Christine (JOI’s sister) and Udoamaka (his certified mistress) were also jailed 5 years for the same offence. Ibori’s lawyer, Bhadresh Gohil, has also ‘lawyered’ himself into trouble over the matter. And yet, these sentences were all related to the same cases of which Justice Marcel Awokulehin acquitted JOI on December 17, 2009 and for which a celebratory state banquet was held by Delta State government, ably led by JOI’s cousin.
When the heat got so much (don’t ask me what happened!) and the Inspector General of Police was given a presidential order to arrest JOI, dead or alive, for the EFCC, he fled to Dubai, was extradited to London, willingly pleaded guilty and was jailed for 13 years on April 17, 2012 – even though by a queer kind of judicial mathematics, the jail term was calculated to read four and half years. The prosecutor, who described JOI as a thief in the government house who plundered the resources of Delta State, has done us a great favour. The distinction between ‘one James Onanefe Ibori’ and ‘this James Onanefe Ibori’ has disappeared; it is the same person, in flesh and blood.
The crisis of identity or the duality of identity is over; the puzzle has been solved and methinks it is time for the judicial system to ask those who created and sustained this puzzle some few questions. Secondly, the young learned (?) judge who freed the one and only JOI of all the 170 charges should be asked to re-read his judgment, and it should be covered live by the key TV stations in Nigeria. But he should be obliged a new pair of reading glasses and presented with the whole evidences afresh so that he will be in a better position to change his mind and offer his apologies – if he so wishes.
I know that I am not learned and do not understand the ways of our learned compatriots, but there is a question that must be raised. Why are our prosecutors never happy unless the charges are up to a thousand? Is it incompetence, quantity illusion, or a deliberate attempt to confuse the entire process and obfuscate the truth? How many charges did the British fellows slam on our dear JOI? A lawyer friend of mine with whom I discussed this issue drew my attention to a Lagos LGA executive who was jailed without much ado sometime ago.
The man was charged with a one-point-agenda: collecting money for a conference which he did not attend and failure to refund the money. (So, Herman Hembe, the disgraced chairman of House Committee on Capital Market, followed a normal path). The case lasted a few minutes and before the man understood what was happening, he was in jail. If the prosecutor had broken that same matter into 50 charges – as they regularly do – the matter would have still been before the court in the past five years.
I also know that JOI is not the only thief in or out of government house in Nigeria. His only fault is that the gods got interested in him and that he went overseas. Nnamani who invested all the proceeds of his ‘political entrepreneurship’ in Enugu State; Ahmed of Zamfara who was accused of outright stealing (no attempt at laundering); and Turaki who invested heavily in the 3rd term bid (never mind Obasanjo’s tales by the moonlight) are all free. And they are all senators of the Federal Republic – for life, because once a senator, always a senator. Even Igbenedion whose luck failed him only had a laughable N3m fine while Odili has not even been investigated at all since 2007.
But the main matter arising from the JOI case is why Nigerians only taste justice when they are outside Nigeria. Amos Adamu was Mr. Clean, despite the COJA scandal (which the then president admitted was horribly messy) and other unholy sporty deals. He tried his luck with FIFA and we knew where it landed him.
The former governor-general of Ijaw nation began his descent into political nothingness from overseas; Yar’Adua’s powerful minister of Justice (Andoaka) is free today because he has not dared to enter the US. And while the foreign participants in the Halliburton scandal have all received their due rewards, the Nigerian contingents were let off the hook. Judge Abubakar Umar of Abuja High Court dismissed the case for want of diligent prosecution on Monday, March 26, 2012. Those discharged were Ibrahim Aliyu, former permanent secretary, Office of the Head of Service; Abdullahi Bello and Mohammed Bakari of Urban Shelter Ltd.
I need answers to these two questions. Why is it that the players in our judicial/penal system fail to see what their colleagues elsewhere see easily? And when shall we jail other JOIs polluting the social, political and economic space with their brazenly stolen wealth? One day, the Pharaoh that knoweth not Joseph will ascend the throne!
Source:businessdayonline
Source:businessdayonline
