Assembly was wary of passing the EFCC Bill as he wanted it. To convince the national legislators that he meant well, Aso Rock offered to fly the relevant House of Representatives Committee to South Korea to study the anti-graft agency there.
Long buried truths on the political persecution, instead of prosecution, brutally directed against Chief James Onanefe Ibori, are emerging.
Dr. Michael Owoko’s essay titled The Problem With EFCC, appeared in The Cable online newspaper, June 25th 2024, began energetically; “In every government or institution, there is a corresponding invisible hand that remote-controls its affairs with immense influence over the decision- making process, predominantly on matters of interest.
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) is a victim of this invisible hand. The head of the commission, and possibly, his inner caucus, are not oblivious of its presence and interference, but may be unknown to other members of staff. By conferring the power to appoint the chairman of the commission on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, lawmakers have unwittingly created an invisible hand for the EFCC. The invisible hand is the president, and by extension, the presidency”.
Most ex-governors, ministers and other political and business bigwigs that have been prosecuted and convicted to date are those with either weak links or fallen out of favour with the president. Examples were former governors of Delta state, James Ibori, and Bayelsa state, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (now late), whose demand for resource control irked the then president, General Olusegun Obasanjo. The former president believed that the ex- governors were source of funding for the defunct Niger Delta agitation group, the Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), and consequently activated the invisible hand which compelled the EFCC to cut them to size”.
Yes, the dictatorial Obasanjo who rated his personal opinion above the national constitution had refused to activate the 13% derivation payment to states on revenue emanating to the federation account from such states until Ibori convened a South-South summit in Asaba in 2000, 24 years ago. Also, by then the onshore and offshore dichotomy of natural gas and oil production was still being debated so Niger Delta states were being denied revenue accruing from mineral deposits in the Atlantic.
In the man of that moment’s thinking, revenue from such oil deposits belonged to Nigeria all right but not to the states which make up Nigeria. Ibori kicked against that, too.
Dr. Omoko forgot to add that politics also ran through it; it was common knowledge that Obasanjo and EFCC targeted the Governors who were pro- Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Ordinarily, a President should be trusted to exercise power responsibly. But by the time the EFCC Bill was being debated, Obasanjo had already shown his true undemocratic colours and the National
Assembly was wary of passing the EFCC Bill as he wanted it. To convince the national legislators that he meant well, Aso Rock offered to fly the relevant House of Representatives Committee to South Korea to study the anti-graft agency there. The evening before the Committee members embarked on that trip, I sat with a member, Hon Chude Ofodile to discuss the pros and cons of passing the bill as Obasanjo presented it. On the Committee’s return from that trip, the bill was passed – and Nigeria fell into Obasanjo and Ribadu’s control.
Why did Michael Omoko focus on Ibori and Alamieyeseigha to illustrate the factual happenings during Obasanjo’s presidency, which set Nigeria on the free fall it is reeling from now? Ibori left office 17 years ago for goodness sake. Yet, his high popularity across the Niger Delta region is perplexing.
For an explanation, I align with Jacques Abbadie, later Dean of Killaloe, Ireland. Abbadie said in 1684, in his French Treatise on the Truth of the Christian Religion: “One can fool some men, or fool all men in some places and times, but one cannot fool all men in all places and ages”, now wrongly attributed to Abraham Lincoln; “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”.
Truth: From No 82 (page 15) of Prosecution’s statement during Ibori’s sentencing comes this): “MER Engineering built two houseboats, which were rented out to oil workers. It was Ibori who was able to influence the contracts with Chevron and Shell and the NNPC.
83: It was MER money that paid for the Ibori property in Hamstead, Westover Hill: COUNT 5: (lying on the file).
84: It was MER money that bought the house Ibori bought in Houston, Texas (USA).
85: It was MER money that paid for the deposit for the $20 million Challenger Jet airplane that Mr. Ibori was in the process of buying when his monies were restrained by the UK courts (Count 9) (STATEMENT
OF OFFENCE reads: “Attempting to commit money laundering contrary to section 1 (1) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981”. Finish. The particulars of offence section were among the dropped charges.
Doubtlessly, all the properties were actually bought with monies that accrued from MER Engineering, Ibori’s own company on contract with certain oil majors.
183: “MER had a bank account at Barclays in Knightsbridge. The money went from the oil companies straight out of Nigeria and into MER account in Barclays”.
140: Prosecution’s conclusion: “To recap, during the eight-year period, when James Ibori was Governor of Delta State, ostensibly earning 4 thousand Pounds per annum, he amassed a property portfolio of six houses worth 6.9 million Pounds”.
Was Ibori really earning just Four Thousand Pounds yearly? Who owned MER Engineering and such other businesses? And why did the London Prosecution mention only 6.9 million Pounds? What happened to the $200million dollars charge Obasanjo said in the Chude Jideonwo interview and his My Watch book that he or EFCC had established against Ibori and he asked Ibori to refund some $150m? Phew! Nigerians couldn’t even ask which constitution gave Obasanjo such powers.