IBORI: A SLAP ON OUR JUDICIARY!
James Ibori is now a household name synonymous
with corruption, runaway ‘common thief’ and all that has to do with justice. Arrested
in Dubai by INTERPOL for offence committed in UK while on the run from Nigeria where our toothless bulldog, EFCC, couldn’t make a
solid case against such a common thief.
Ibori has always been deceiving Deltans as
well as Nigerians from 1999 when he contested the gubernatorial election under
falsified date of birth to conceal his true identity as a convicted person in UK. The question I keep asking myself is that how many
political office holders are really telling us about their true identity? Salisu Buhari, the speaker of the house in
1999 almost got away with a falsified Toronto certificate if not for the tired less effort of our
journalists!
So, when the UK court sentenced him to thirteen years imprisonment
for fraud and money laundering of fences, we all hive a sign of relieve that at
least one scapegoat\t has been made.
It started five years ago, December 2007 to
be precised when Ibori was arrested by Economic and Financial Crime Commission
and was arraigned before a Federal High Court in Kaduna state in 2007 on 170
count charge of of corruption and use of public fund for private businesses. He
won the battle for transfer of his case to newly set up Federal High Court in Asaba
in 2009 and in the same year he was discharged and acquitted of all charges
brought against him.
His case file was re-opened three month later
when President Goodluck Jonathan became substantive president. He was accused
of embezzling over forty billion naira Delta state share in Oceanic bank; forty
four billion shares in Intercontinental bank. This made EFCC to immediately
declare him wanted. He refused to surrender while police launched a man hunt on
him.
He escaped to Dubai on 13th may, 2010 and was arrested by
agents of INTERPOL in an international arrest warrant issued by UK government in respect of money laundering. He was later handed over to the UK authority in Dubai who sent him to London on 14th April, 2011. He was finally arraigned on June 2011.
There is every reason to believe that many
political office holders like Ibori are still out there under the protection of
our dear law enforcement agents who have
links and connections with some political bigwigs. It is a case of
selective justice; a justice that place some people above the law and some
below it. It is a case of poor man being beaten and tortured because he stole ‘garri’
when ‘common thieves’ in the names of
governors, senators, ,honourables and
others who wield political powers are just parted at the back and are asked ‘to go and sin
no more’.
posted by Unknown @ 07:34
0 Comments
