Former Governor James Ibori was today moved from Kaduna Prison to National Hospital, Abuja in what is seen as the latest effort by the Umar Yar’Adua administration to ensure that Ibori circumvents a Federal High Court order that remanded him in prison.
The latest plot to spare Ibori prison time was hatched by Godwin Abbe, a retired army general from Edo State who is Minister for Internal Affairs.
Saharareporters was informed that Mr. Abbe issued a sudden order that Ibori be moved out of Kaduna Prison to the VIP section of the National Hospital, Abuja.
Prison authorities in Kaduna had earlier dispelled rumors that James Ibori had taken ill in prison. In a press interview on Tuesday, Ibori's close associate and a former commissioner in his administration, Dr. Festus Okubor, claimed that Ibori had fallen ill in prison. But Alhaji Momoh Momodu, comptroller of Kaduna Prison, quickly dismissed that claim.
Saharareporters has learned about Minister Abbe’s illegal intervention on Ibori’s behalf since the ex-governor was remanded in Kaduna Prison. Several sources at the prison told Saharareporters that Ibori never slept in the prison yard. Instead, he was ferried out every night to stay at a five-star hotel in Kaduna and brought back in the day to his luxurious prison flat in the VIP wing of the prison.
Saharareporters has been informed that the minister’s latest action followed the inability of Ibori's legal and political team to secure informal assurance from the judge handling the ex-governor’s trial that Ibori will be granted bail on Friday January 11th 2008 when his trial comes up at the Federal High Court in Kaduna.
Saharareporters sources in Abuja said a meeting took place at Baba Gana Kingibe's Guest House in Maitama area of Abuja where it was revealed that the judge did not seem disposed to grant Ibori bail on Friday. It was then decided that the minister of internal affairs should move Ibori out of prison for now—on the pretext that he is sick. To further buttress the fiction of his ostensible sickness, some sources to Ibori told us that he was mulling the idea of not appearing in court on Friday.
Another option decided by the circle of Ibori’s associates was that, should Ibori return to court on Friday for the continuation of his bail application, his dramatic hospitalization would be used to sway the judge to grant him bail.
Another source told Saharareporters that Ibori was driven to Abuja by road earlier today to seek medical treatment for "hypertension-related illness." A plan to fly him to Abuja on police helicopter was abandoned because the Federal Government felt it would lend credence to the widespread belief that the questionable removal of EFCC Chairman Nuhu Ribadu was done as part of a strategy to get Ibori off the hook.
The VIP section of the National Hospital Abuja has acquired a reputation as the favorite sanctuary of suspects being tried by the EFCC for grave economic crimes. Several indicted politicians have used the medical documents signed by unscrupulous medical doctors to evade the harsh reality of prison life. Armed with certificates proclaiming them seriously ill, these politically connected suspects earn rooms at the National Hospital.
Former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu checked himself into the VIP section of the National Hospital to avoid arrest. He later surrendered to EFCC operatives after a few days’ standoff at the hospital. Also, former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun, spent most of his prison term at the VIP section of the National Hospital after he was convicted for stealing N17 billion belonging to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
On the London front, two of Ibori’s female associates, Bimpe Pogoson and Christie Ibie-Ibori, appeared before a UK Magistrate court yesterday to face trial for offences related to money laundering in the UK.
The court, which sat briefly, adjourned the case till January 29 2008 and transferred it to the Southwark Crown Court in London. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 29 2008. A source at the London Metropolitan Police told Saharareporters that, depending on how the women plead before the Southwark Crown Court on January 29, the two women’s trial may end around September or October 2008. The women are out on bail until the next court date.
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