Daughter of former Delta State Governor James Ibori, Erhiatake won the Ethiope West Constituency into the Delta State House of Assembly.
Erhiatake of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) polled 32, 700 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate who scored 1, 709 while the Labour Party candidate recorded1, 429.
Last week’s victory in Asaba, the Delta State capital, of Dr Ifeanyi Okowa as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate was part of a scheme to ensure President Goodluck Jonathan’s failure in next year’s presidential poll, it was learnt yesterday.
The chairman of a socio-political organisation, the Urhobo Mandate Group (UMG), Dr Wilson Omene, made the allegation in a statement in Warri.
The UMG leader also alleged that the scheme was orchestrated by former Delta State Governor James Ibori to take his pound of flesh from President Jonathan.
According to him, the Ibori strategy was aimed at ensuring that the Urhobo did not renege on the Uvwiamughe Declaration, where it pledged to support any party which fields an Urhobo candidate as its governorship candidate.
Omene said this was the reason the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) primary was allegedly manipulated in favour of Dr Okowa to slight the Urhobo nation.
The statement urged the PDP to brace itself to face the backlash of its anti-Urhobo position, adding that the ethnic nation would mobilise about two million votes for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from its people in Delta and other parts of the country.
Omene also alleged that Ibori, working in alliance with the national leadership of the APC, had started lobbying the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) to pressure Chief Great Ogboru, another Urhobo man, who had secured the governorship ticket of the Labour Party (LP) and who is believed to be sympathetic to President Jonathan, to opt out of the race so that the APC governorship candidate might have an undivided Urhobo block vote.
It noted that the battered state of affairs between the ruling party and the Urhobo nation could still be salvaged if the party would revert the present situation whereby it had given its ticket to a minority part of the state.
UMG also deplored the Ijaw ethnic nation in the Delta South Senatorial District for teaming up with the people of the northern senatorial district to work against the aspiration of the Urhobo nation.
Some people may not be in tune with the style of controversial businessman and Niger Delta youth leader, Ayiri Emami, but many have commended his loyalty to his friends even in very odd circumstances. In fact, his loyalty and love for the former governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori is said to be legendary. While James Ibori is languishing in jail in London, Ayiri still reveres the influential politician even when many of the old associates of the former governor have deserted him.
The occasion of Ibori’s birthday days ago afforded Ayiri another opportunity to pay homage to his benefactor and mentor. When Ibori turned 56 years old a few days ago, Emami did not let the day go unnoticed. The business man led a group of youths in a rally in Asaba to mark the day. At the end of the rally, Emami reportedly hosted the youths to a party where he restated his loyalty and commitment to Ibori, whose voice was most vocal during the agitation for resource control.
He urged the people to keep on praying for Ibori. The Akulagba 1 of Warri was full of adulations for the embattled former governor.
Former Delta State Governor James Onanefe Ibori has described the death of Mr Henry Abebe as shocking.
He said Abebe, who died on August 8, was his friend and brother.
In a statement by his media aide, Tony Eluemunor, Ibori said: “With his death, life became reduced for me and our circle of friends, for Henry was the soul of our gatherings.
“We’ve known ourselves for over 30 years. When we were young and life was ahead of us, we shared our dreams and difficulties. We shared laughter and joy, and some sorrows too. If you were close to Henry, he shared his ups and downs – everything – with you.
“As Henry Abebe is being buried today, my heart goes out to his wife Beatrice; daughter, Nicole; and sons, Mannie and Tony. I commiserate with his brother, John, and sister, Rita. What can I say to his aged parents? How do I console them? I pray God grants them the fortitude to bear this enormous loss.”
The travails of former Delta State Governor James Ibori are far from over as the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin City ruled yesterday that he has a case to answer.
This is coming six years after Justice Marcel Awokulehin struck out all 170-count charge of money laundering preferred against Ibori by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Ibori is serving a 13-year jail term in London.
The appellate court headed by a three-man panel of justices in a unanimous judgment set aside Justice Awokulehin’s ruling.
Justice Ibrahim Saulawa read the ruling and was supported by Justices P. M Ekpe and H. A Barka.
The EFCC approached the Court of Appeal on four grounds which are that the trial judge looked at the proof of evidence and evaluated same as if the prosecution had called all its witnesses and trial has been concluded and that the procedure was by way of summary trial and not trial by indictment or information.
Others are that the proof of evidence clearly shows a prima facie case has been disclosed against the accused/ respondent and that His Lordship erred when he held that no case was disclosed against the accused/ respondent.
Ibori has asked his lawyers to head to the Supreme Court.
In a statement by his Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, the former governor said despite his travails, he remained an unfailing believer in the rule of law, especially the courts.
Ibori said: “The decision of the Federal High Court in Asaba, which the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin has struck down, was perhaps the most politicised in Nigerian history.”
The ex-governor called on his supporters to remain calm.
The travails of convicted former Delta State Governor James Ibori is not over.
The prosecution in his confiscation trial yesterday urged a London Crown Court to allow a re-trial.
The trial ended in December with the judge demanding appropriate evidence to allow him deliver judgment.
British Crown Prosecutor Sasha Wass, at the resumed hearing, told the court that the prosecution desires to re-open trial in the confiscation suit.
Wass told Judge Anthony Pitts that Ibori’s lawyers had changed their submissions, which “surprised and confused the prosecution, thereby preventing the prosecution from knowing where the case was leading”.
He said the actions of the defence team prompted the prosecution to seek an adjournment in December for it to present more evidence to help the court in reaching a decision.
But Ibori’s lead counsel Ivan Krolic (QC) objected to the argument on the basis that there was no precedent.
Krolic told the court that the defence was against the prosecution’s request, because “the function of the court in confiscation hearing is to consider which individual has benefited from proceeds of crime and to what amount”.
“Your Honour has no jurisdiction to abort the earlier proceeding; we say the court should not continue to act where it has no jurisdiction,” said Krolic.
According to him, the law prescribes that where a case is due for ruling, it should be concluded whether or not a party in the case has done its duties well.
“It is not the duty of the court to aid any party in a suit or restart a case when convinced that one side in a suit has not adduced enough evidence to prove its point.
“The suggestion by the Crown that they were taken by surprise in my respectful submission is nonsense. The Crown could not have been surprised.
“I cannot cross-examine the court, but if the court was surprised, it should not have been.
“We say that the prosecution having closed its case should not be entitled to restart the same case.
“The court has no powers to tell a party in a case that it has not produced enough evidence nor allow the party restart its case,” he stated.
Judge Pitts adjourned till tomorrow after allowing Mrs. Udoamaka Okoronkwo as Ibori’s co-defendant.
Nigeria and the United Kingdom (UK) have signed a Prisoners Transfer Agreement (PTA) to pave way for the repatriation of some of the 521 Nigerians serving jail terms in the UK.
A top government source said former Delta State Governor James Ibori would be one of those to be repatriated to complete his jail term in Nigeria. Ibori still has more than six months to stay in prison.
Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke and the UK Justice Minister, Jermey Wright, signed the agreement on behalf of their countries yesterday in Abuja.
According to the agreement, a prisoners’ consent will not be required before repatriation.
Adoke said the signing of the agreement was an indication of the friendly and cordial relationship between both countries.
“The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan remains irrevocably committed to the welfare of Nigerians residing in the UK. It is therefore our expectation that the Government of the United Kingdom continue to accord more convicted Nigerians appropriate legal protection under UK law’’, he said.
Jeremy, who said there was only one British national in Nigeria prison, commended the National Assembly for passing the legislation that paved way for signing the agreement.
He reiterated the commitment of the UK government to support the improvement of prisons reforms in the country, adding that UK had provided some assistance for the improvement of the Kiriki Prisons in Lagos.
According to him, the UK has pledged to commit one million pounds to help improve the condition of prisons in Nigeria.
He said: “This is a good agreement for both Nigeria and the United Kingdom and I think it gives us the opportunity to strengthen our partnership and our friendship. It is also an opportunity to ensure that those prisoners who come from either country will serve their own sentences in their own countries and that is better for their rehabilitation.
‘‘It gives us the opportunity to ensure the security of the rest of our population by making the necessary arrangements for their release.’’
Jeremy expressed hope that both countries would demonstrate that the agreement was effective and meaningful at end of year by transfer of prisoners as soon as it was ratified.
He said the signing of the agreement had opened a range of opportunities for partnership in other areas including the criminal justice system.
The UK minister, while fielding questions from newsmen, explained that not all the 521 Nigerians serving in UK jails would be eligible for the transfer.
“The sentence that they are serving would need to be longer than 12 months for this agreement to be relevant to them’’, he said.
On high profile Nigerians serving jail terms in UK, Jeremy said, “there has to be a good deal of discussion between individual prisoners and the agreement of both counties would have to be secured before individual transfers.
“The compulsory nature of this prisoner transfer agreement is that the prisoners themselves don’t have the choices to choose where they go or not.
“But the respective countries do still have an opportunity to discuss whether a transfer should be made’’, he said.
The minister visited the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri.
Onwuliri described the agreement as “historic’’ and noted that after the signing, experts from both countries would work out modalities for its implementation before its ratification.
Also speaking, Mr Abdulazeez Dankano, the Director of Consular and Immigration Services in the foreign ministry, noted both countries were signatories to the Scheme for the Transfer of Convicted Offenders within the Commonwealth.
Dankano said the scheme allowed for the transfer of prisoners between Nigeria and UK where the consent of both states and the prisoner was obtained.
He said under the Commonwealth scheme, only one Nigeria national had been repatriated from the UK since its inception.
The British government promised to give the country 1m pounds (about N280 million) to reform prisons to ease the stress of the inmates.
Jeremy, who also led a five-man delegation to the Ministry of Interior, said: “We believe that the agreement today is a positive step in furthering our mutual relationship and partnership with Nigeria for prisoner exchange. The UK government will give the Nigeria one million pounds (about N280 million) to assist on comprehensive reformation of the country’s Prisons to ease the stress of the inmates,” he said.
Minister of Interior Abba Moro promised to do everything within his powers to ensure that the agreement on prisoner exchange becomes operative before the end of this year now that the agreement has been signed.
“I think that it is in the mutual interest of the two countries that the agreement reached should be implemented to the letter especially with the kind of traditional historical relationship that Nigeria shares with the United Kingdom, we have no reason to say one thing and do another. This government anchored on transformation, is desirous of ensuring that we do things very differently from the way we were doing things in the past which have not given us results,” Moro said.
He equally assured the visiting minister that even though Nigeria is grappling with prison congestion, it would not hamper the prisoner exchange pointing out that already arrangements have been put in place to reconstruct some of the prisons and provide six new ones in various locations for the transfer arrangement.
Moro praised the British government for assisting Nigerian in the transformation ofin its prison system, especially in the provision of necessary facilities that would make the prisoner transfer deal viable, adding that the Federal Government was committed to the fulfilment of the terms of the agreement.
At the resumed hearing of former Delta State Governor James Ibori’s confiscation case, Ibori’s defence counsel challenged the judge’s powers in terminating the case midway and ordering a retrial. QC Krolic told the judge “your honour has no jurisdiction to terminate the previous proceedings” in the way that it was done.
At the preliminary hearing, both the judge and the prosecution appeared to suggest that Ibori’s earlier confiscation hearing, which was abruptly made inconclusive on October 7, had been based on a ‘Life Style Offence’.
QC Krolic corrected both the judge and the prosecution, stating that “the life style offence only applied to the 2002 Act and that Ibori’s confiscation proceedings were governed by the 1988 Act to which life style did not apply”. Neither the judge nor the crown prosecution was able to respond to Mr. Krolic’s points.
The case has been adjourned till Tuesday.
Judge Anthony Pitts had adjourned the confiscation hearing for retrial, having accepted the Crown Prosecution’s submission that “there is no sufficient evidence to proceed with the confiscation hearing”. Judge Anthony Pitts rather than rule on the submissions of the two parties after three weeks of legal arguments from the prosecution and defence counsels in October, decided to send the confiscation hearing to retrial for the prosecution counsel to provide more evidence and witnesses in order to give his ruling on the confiscation hearing.
The defence argued against this, saying it was akin to shifting the goal posts mid game just to favour a certain side in a football match.
In another related case, the Jury sitting at Southwark Crown Court today found Elias Preko guilty of the two counts charge of money laundering, which was sent to retrial by Judge Anthony Pitts.
Although this news found its way into many Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday, none could report that the same Mr. Preko was cleared of three counts charge of money laundering and forgery by a Jury in his first trial in 2012. But the same Judge Pitts sent the case for a retrial just as he did with the Ibori confiscation case. And now that the man, who was found innocent before, was found guilty at the retrial, Judge Pitts has accepted the verdict and did not talk about retrial again. Instead, he was sentenced to four years imprisonment over the same charges, but which were sent to retrial by the judge –after a jury had declared him innocent in the earlier trial in the same court.
Elias Preko, a former Gold Goldman Sachs banker, had been accused of helping Ibori create offshore accounts and trust funds.
…Court orders its forfeiture to FG
The Delta State Government failed on Friday in its bid to claim the $15 million allegedly offered as bribe by former governor James Ibori to officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
A Federal High Court (FHC) in Abuja ordered that the money, estimated at N4.6b, be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Justice Gabriel Kolawole, in a judgment held that the earlier denial by Ibori that he owned the money, and the failure of Delta State to prove that the fund was removed from its treasury, qualified the money as an “unclaimed property.”
The judge further held that in view of the circumstances surrounding the case, where people were reluctant to openly claim its ownership, the money qualified to be forfeited to the Federal Government “as fund derived from unlawful act,” as stipulated under the Money Laundering and EFCC Acts 2004.
The judge wondered why no one claimed the money between April 25 and 26, 2007 when EFCC said the money was offered its officials by Ibori and July 27, 2012 when the FG advertised in a national daily that the fund was to be forfeited.
Justice Kolawole, who dubbed the case – “the unclaimed $15m scandal,” – queried why the Delta State government waited until a July 27 advertorial published by the FG, before it decided to claim ownership of the money.
The EFCC had in April 2007 accused Ibori of offering its then Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu and some others officials $15 million bribe in a bid to stop his prosecution.
The assets confiscation hearing of former Delta State Governor James Ibori came to an abrupt end yesterday, as the Judge, Anthony Pitts, granted the crown prosecution’s request to adjourn for retrial.
The prosecution said it needed time to get more evidence against the former governor after both the prosecution and defence have made their submissions in the hearing.
Judge Pitts said: “I feel that this case inevitably requires decision that is probably based on proper evidence. This matter must proceed in a way to make proper decision. It seems to me to hear some more evidence. I need to be in a much better position more than I am now to make a better position. I am going to adjourn this proceeding till early next year.”
The lead counsel to the former governor, QC Krolic said: “The making of confiscation determinations is governed by different procedural requirement from trial procedures and different standard of proof to be applied.
“When it comes to trial and sentencing, the court is not concerned with numbers.”
But Judge Pitts said: “Number is also considered.”
Explaining to the Judge, Krolic said: “In confiscation, difference in number is important because the issues in confiscation are quantitative.”
Judge Pitts cut in, saying: “I fully agree that we are not bound by the pleas of guilt here….but we are in a different situation.I am being asked by you to ignore his guilty pleas and look again if he is actually guilty, I know you are not saying that, but it really seems so close.”
Krolic cited many authorities to support his case that a guilty plea in Confiscation does not mean that the defendant has the full benefits of the guilt.
He said: “The burden lies on the prosecution to prove to what extent the defendant has benefitted from the offence and in this case, we are relying on the prosecution’s own evidence that is set out in section 73 as provided in their 63,000 pages evidence before this court from the start of these proceedings.”
Krolic, relying on the case of Mcintosh and Rezvi 2010, said: “The court held in paragraph 22 that a plea of guilty did not amount to an admission from which a conclusive inferences can be drawn pursuant to section 10CJA 1967. Where the defendant has pleaded guilty, it is important for the prosecution to prove their case. I have shown you that what the prosecution has put forward in their 63,000 pages trial bundle is not supported by any evidence.”
The lead Crown prosecutor Sasha Wass, who only turned up for the day’s proceedings after the court’s lunch break and briefed by her junior counsel, Esther Schutzer-Weissmann that the Judge was intending to adjourn the case for more evidence to reach a conclusion, said: “Your honour, we will ask that these proceedings are brought to a halt and list it for another hearing so that we may call more witnesses.”
Krolick, not satisfied with the crown prosecution’s request for a halt of the court proceedings for a retrial, urged the Judge to continue to hear the case and give judgment based on the submissions made by both the
Krolick said: “We do not say that the conviction should go, we do not attack the conviction; we are only concerned by what has been obtained by Ibori in connection to the charge. We are not even suggesting that witnesses are required… We are only saying that Ibori did not obtain what he has been accused of obtaining and that the prosecution does not have evidence to link funds from Delta State to him and that the court should make its decision on that basis.”
The court adjourns till Dec 19 for preliminary direction of the confiscation proceeding.
A report quoted Ibori as reacting to the development thus: “After 8 years of criminal investigations, five adjournments and over fifty trips to Nigeria, the prosecution failed to provide any tangible evidence to support their claim that I defrauded Delta State, their case collapsed to such an extent that on the last day of a three weeks hearing, they were humbled into making an application to the judge for permission to start again which he Judge unceremoniously granted.”