Saharareporters has discovered that former Governor James Onanefe Ibori was arrested at the Abuja residence of Mr. Nnamdi (Andy) Uba, former special assistant on domestic affairs to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Our finding dispels a controversy that has raged over the precise location of Ibori’s arrest. In separate statements, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Kwara State Government and Ibori’s aides gave conflicting accounts of where Ibori was arrested. The EFCC said that he had been picked up in the Asokoro area of Abuja. A Kwara State spokesman said the former governor was accosted in the premises of the Kwara State Governor’s Lodge moments after he arrived to bid farewell to Governor Bukola Saraki. In a weird twist, Ibori’s spokesman, Tony Eluemunor, dismissed both the EFCC and Kwara accounts. He then claimed that the former governor had driven himself to the commission’s offices after receiving a phone invitation.
Saharareporters has been able to unravel that the conflicting accounts reflected an attempt by the EFCC, Ibori, Uba and Governor Saraki to cover up Uba’s involvement in the saga.
We earlier reported the sequence of events leading up to Ibori’s arrest on Wednesday, December 12. Arriving at the Kwara Governor’s Lodge in the Maitama area of Abuja, Ibori realized that EFCC officials were tailing him. He immediately dashed into the lodge where he saw Governor Saraki headed for his car to drive out. Saraki and Ibori are close friends and have been linked to corrupt deals as well as ownership of multi-million dollar residences in South Africa, Europe and North America. Saraki has helped Ibori to evade arrest since the May 29 2007 expiration of his gubernatorial tenure in Delta State. As six vehicles of EFCC officials entered the Kwara State Lodge in quick succession, Ibori ran past the governor into the living room area to make a quick call to Andy Uba as Saraki pleaded with EFCC officials not to arrest him.
An eyewitness told Saharareporters that Ibori was then smuggled out of the Kwara State Government Lodge and driven straight to Andy Uba's house within the Aso Rock Villa. A team of EFCC officials followed him to Uba's where they had a brief meeting with Uba and Ibori. At 11:45, Ibori was formally arrested at Uba’s home and taken to the EFCC offices for further interrogation. Ibori was subsequently charged to court before Judge Shuaibu at the Federal High Court Kaduna where 103 counts of corruption, abuse of office and money laundering were preferred against him.
Ibori is charged along with his principal female accomplice and mistress, Udoamaka Okoronkwo, and a slew of front companies he allegedly used in siphoning money out of Delta State. After pleading not guilty to the charges, he was remanded in EFCC custody until Monday December 17th 2007 for further hearing on the bail application.
Several knowledgeable sources have informed Saharareporters that Andy Uba's involvement was concealed by the EFCC to avoid exposing Uba's role in facilitating the movement of cash said to be worth more than N9 billion on behalf of Yar'adua's presidential campaign organization during the flawed April 2007 elections.
A few of Ibori's friends have spoken to our reporters about Uba's role in moving large caches of cash on behalf of the Yar'adua campaign.
According to them, Ibori had given billions of naira through Uba to former President Obasanjo who controlled disbursements for the Yar'adua presidential campaigns.
Uba’s name appears like a recurring decimal in the money laundering trial of several former governors. Former Governor Saminu Turaki of Jigawa, standing trial for embezzling N30 billion from his state, has disclosed that he gave N10 billion to Uba to finance the failed third term project. Turaki has told his friends as well as EFCC investigators that Obasanjo had encouraged him to funnel the money through Uba to help bribe legislators to approve a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the former president to run for a third term.
Saharareporters has also learned that, in a bid to distance himself from the flak and heat generated by Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa’s protection of Ibori, Umar Yar'adua timed Ibori's arrest to coincide with his departure to the US where he was pressed to drop his opposition to the U.S. government’s plan to set up an African Command military base.
Sources familiar with Yar'adua's itinerary said the presidential jet that took Yar'adua to the U.S. was still on the tarmac at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport as at 12: 30 p.m. monitoring Ibori's arrest by the EFCC. Yar'adua's jet then departed shortly afterwards en route to Washington DC.
Meanwhile, with Ibori’s trial set to continue tomorrow, his associates and aides have had sleepless nights and held long strategy meetings to ensure that he is granted bail by the judge.
Speaking anonymously to Saharareporters, some of them bragged that tomorow's bail hearing was “a done deal.” Apart from showing up in court to show solidarity, they have also made arrangements for a rented crowd of youths and women to protest around the court premises in support of Ibori. In addition, Saharareporters has learned that Ibori’s cousin and self-chosen successor, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, has paid N500 million to several “militant” groups in the oil-rich Niger Delta to sponsor kidnappings and other acts of violence unless Ibori was granted favorable terms for bail. The broader goal of the strategy is to create political pressure to sabotage Ibori’s trial. The immediate goal is to force the judge into ruling to grant bail to the former governor on less stiff conditions than those of former Governors Chimaroke Nnamani and Saminu Turaki. One of Ibori’s associates, who had earlier described the judge as “the EFCC’s judge,” was emphatic that they have indeed reached out to the judge who allegedly “promised to be considerate.”
Saharareporters has also learned that the goal of the prosecution is to keep Ibori in detention until after the New Year to give them time to prepare an airtight case. One source told Saharareporters that fresh evidence would be introduced in court to show that James Ibori has the resources and the motivation to flee if granted bail. The prosecution reportedly hopes to bolster their argument with information about Ibori’s use of multiple passports and identities.
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