The legal fireworks surrounding the controversial $15 million allegedly given as bribe to a former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, by a former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, may soon assume a new dimension. Since April 26, 2007, the money has been in the strong room of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Ibori has since been convicted and he is serving a 13-year jail term in the United Kingdom, having pleaded guilty before a British Court in London on April 18, this year, to corruption and money laundering charges.
But the Delta State Government is determined to pursue its claim of ownership of the money at the Federal High Court, Abuja, to logical conclusion. Ribadu surrendered the money after he claimed that Ibori attempted to bribe him with it to falsify his corruption and money laundering cases. Before the Federal Government placed an order of forfeiture on the looted money, Ibori engaged the anti-graft czar in war of words that dovetailed into hot arguments, media war and trials, over who bribed who with the controversial $15 million.
While Ibori has told those who care to listen and reacted to every charge and accusation preffered against him by Ribadu, through his Senior Special Assistant on Media Matters, Tony Eluemunor, that he did not bribe him, Ribadu remained undeterred as he kept reeling out in sequential order all Ibori’s administrative misdemeanour. Since the duo (Ibori and Ribadu) refused to claim the money, the Federal Government, through the Attorney-General of the Federation, via an application on July 24, last year, filed a motion ex-parte, praying the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, to grant it the ownership of the money. The application compelled the court to immediately issue an ultimatum on the order, permitting it and directing the publication in any national newspaper of the interim order for anyone who is interested in the property, to appear before it to show cause within 14 days why the final order of forfeiture should not be made in favour of Federal
Government of Nigeria.
Prior to the order of forfeiture on July 24 last year, the United States Department of Justice secured a restraining order on the assets of the former governor, including his $3 million looted funds and a mansion in Houston, Texas. The Department got the powers through an application filed under seal on May 16 in US District Court in the District of Columbia, to register and enforce two orders from the United Kingdom courts against more than $3 million in corruption proceeds related to Ibori. The former governor was said to have laundered the proceeds through a myriad of companies, intermediaries and nominees in several jurisdictions, including the UK, with the help of his former English Solicitor, Bhadresh Gohil.
But before the 14-day deadline granted by Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja for the forfeiture of the controversial loot, an Abuja-based lawyer, Timipa Okponitere, approached the court, challenging the moves by the Federal Government to claim the money, averring that the money belongs to the people and Government of Delta State. Although, Okponipere did not say he was pursuing the case in proxy for the Government of Delta State but in the interest of the good people of the state, the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of the state, Charles Ajuyah (SAN), however, disowned Okponipere at a press briefing summoned after the State Executive Council meeting held on August 15, 2012 at the Press Centre, Government House, Asaba. Ajuyah said the state did not ask anybody to file a suit against the Federal Government on its behalf, maintaining: “I have not abdicated or delegated my duty, whoever that is in court on the matter is
doing so at his own expense.”
There, Ajuyah, confirmed that Delta State Government was determined to take its destiny in its hand before the Federal Government confiscates the money or keeps it in a dedicated account as being canvassed by the Forum for Justice and Human Right Defence, led by its National Coordinator, Oghenejabor Ikimi. Ikimi did not only condemn the move by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and the Federal Government to claim the loot but argued that rather than forfeiting the money, arrangement ought to be made for the fund to be kept in an escrow account until 2016 when a new government will come into place in Delta State.
According to Ikimi, if the money must go back to the state, it should not be given to Governor Uduaghan, whom he accused of not speaking up while Ibori and Ribadu were at loggerheads over where the money originated from. He argued further: “We suggest that the money be kept in an interest-yielding account or an escrow account devoid of the Federal Government or the Uduaghan led government (of Delta) for the benefit of Deltans till the year 2016 when a new governor must have been sworn-in.” He wondered why the Uduaghan-led government that had once kept mum over the saga now suddenly saw reason to reclaim it. He added: “Hence, the regime (Uduaghan-led administration) now stepping out to say the state was robbed of the money is an admission that the former governor actually bribed the erstwhile EFCC boss with the state’s funds.”
The Eagle Online however gathered that Ikimi’s stance was informed by an application dated August 10, 2012, filed by Ajuyah in a 35-paragraph affidavit, deposed to by one Nikiru Bridget Emakpor, a lawyer, in the state’s Ministry of Justice, on behalf of the Delta State Government. The application admitted that the controversial money was an exclusive property of Delta State Government, maintaining that the Federal Government was bereft of the right of ownership of the money.
The affidavit insisted that the $15 million was allegedly offered and became a disputed matter when Ibori held sway between May 22, 1999 and May 29, 2007 as governor of the state and argued further that the release of the money to the state would fast-track ongoing human-capital and infrastructural projects in the state. “Any money, asset or property recovered from Ibori rightly belonged to Delta State and same should be returned to it as it has always maintained its entitlement to any asset recovered from Ibori. Any denial by Ibori in respect of the money cannot affect entitlement of the state to the amount,” the affidavit read in part.
But the Delta State Chairman of the Peoples Redemption Party, Engr. Emmanuel Odafe Igbini, who doubles as the National President, Vanguard for Transparent Leadership and Democracy, in a petition to the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice Kolawole, queried the issuance of the interim order that paved the way for the forfeiture of the loot to the Federal Government. According to Igbini, Delta State would not be an exception in the comity of states in Nigeria. He said all monies, assets and property recovered from the former Governor of Plateau state, Joshua Dariye, and those of the former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, were returned to their states. While he maintained that there should be no legal basis to treat Delta State case differently, he said it is in the interest of justice that the money should be released and returned to the state to be used for what it was initially voted for.
Igbini said: “My Lord, I most humbly submit here, that the said money belongs to the people and government of Delta State. I am a Deltan by birth and I know this as a fact. The fact as at April 2007 when that this money was given to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as bribe, Chief James Onanefe Ibori was still the governor of Delta State. His Excellency, Governor James Onanefe Ibori, never brought his personal money to run the affairs of Delta State at any point in time. All monies spent by him for whatever purpose were money belonging to the people and government of Delta State. His Excellency, Chief James Onanefe Ibori, was never a philanthropist recorded to have donated or used his personal funds for Delta State while he served as governor. In fact, he made sure that his salaries, allowances and all other financial entitlements were promptly paid to him as governor by the people of Delta State. That it is also a fact that Mallam Nuhu Ribadu had in April 2007
alerted the people of Delta State, the Federal Government and the public at large that governor James Onanefe Ibori had embarked of misappropriation and looting of moneys belonging to the people of Delta State. It is also a fact that ex-governor James Onanefe Ibori denied knowledge of and ownership of the said money. My Lord, this it is on record that the same ex-governor Chief James Onanefe Ibori had in the same manner vehemently denied all charges of corruption and mismanagement of funds belonging to the people of Delta State as alleged by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and the EFCC. Despite this denial, the same ex-governor Chief James Onanefe Ibori, in April 2012, five years after, voluntarily admitted these Allegations by the EFCC and pleaded guilty at a London Court for which he is now serving jail term.
“It is therefore clear in the eyes of the Law, that the denial knowledge of and ownership of this said US15,000,000 by this same ex-governor Chief James Onanefe Ibori, cannot and should not be considered by your Lordship as true for the purpose of this matter. For this purpose also, the Claim by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and EFCC is true and should therefore finally settle the fact that the ownership of the said US$15,000,000 is not in dispute, ab-initio. The ownership of the said money is the people and Government of Delta State. The people and government of Delta State are still in existence and very anxiously waiting for the immediate and unconditional return of their money with accrued Interest, to them for the purposes of completing Projects for which the money was originally appropriated for. The people and government of Delta State are not seeking any assistance from the Applicants and or any external Institution for safekeeping of the money on their
behalf. We are capable of keeping and managing our financial resources. The Application filed by the Applicants is therefore a deliberate and carefully calculated attempt to steal this money belonging to the people and government of Delta State. This my lord, must allowed because it will be double Injustice to the people of Delta State. I therefore submit that it is only morally and legally Just and Right, for my Lordship to order the immediate and unconditionally return of this US$15,000,000 to the people of Delta State through the government of Delta State.”
But the EFCC, in an argument advanced by its lead prosecutor, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), and the 14 paragraph affidavit deposed by one Bello Yahaya, who was one of the investigators assigned by the EFCC to investigate the case against Ibori, aligned with the Federal Government and prayed the court for the money to be declared forfeited before the case was adjourned till September 1. But, on October 25 this year, the court ruled that the money be forfeited to the Federal Government since Delta State Government failed to prove its case beyond reasonable point.
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who spoke through Ajuyah during the Mid-Term Ministerial briefing at the Unity Hall, Government House, Asaba, recently, has however rejected the forfeiture of the loot to the Federal Government, insisting that the state was determined to possess its possession. According to Ajuyah, the state has started to examine the judgment with the possibility of pinpointing the loopholes. He said: “Within the legal framework of three months, the state will examine the judgement and explore the possibility of appealing it. So we are studying the judgment. If need be, we will not hesitate to appeal it.”
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