The sham trial of former Delta State governor, James Ibori, will likely end with a discharge at the Federal High Court in Asaba next Monday before Justice Mercel Awokulehin, the judge Ibori personally nominated to head the kangaroo court which was paid for by the Delta State government.
And Ibori will leave Asaba for his alma mater, the University of Benin, where he will give a triumphant Founders' Day address, for which he has now been reinstated by the institution after a "cancellation" last week driven by the university community.
Sources in Abuja told Saharareporters that the former Delta State governor, who has been very worried over the failure of Awokulehin to give the agreed ruling which the judge Awokulehin told the court was ready two weeks earlier but could not be delivered because owing to some mundane reasons he offered.
Awokulehin therefore adjourned the ruling till next Monday, November 23 2009. As an angry Ibori left the courtroom, sources told Saharareporters that he told his close aides that Awokulehin was a coward. Later, Awokulehin reportedly reached out to Ibori to apologize that he couldn’t give the ruling as planned because of the petitions written by two groups especially the one written by Edwin Clark, the famous Ijaw elder statesman. He also told Ibori that the he would like to clear with his superior, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Dan Abutu.
Ibori, through Aondoaka, has piled pressure on Abutu, who reportedly gave his blessing to the judgment last night in Abuja where all the nation's judges have been meeting at the annual “Judges Conference.”
Awokulehin reportedly shunned the Chief Justice of the federation who asked him to offer a response to the petitions written against him. Instead, Ibori’s lawyer, Emeka Arinze, previously unknown in the case, sent a defence on Awokulehin behalf to the National Judicial Council (NJC) through the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kutigi.
Ibori assured Awokulehin that the CJN, was on his way out and he need not worry about the old man. Earlier this week, Yar’adua has already forwarded to the Nigerian Senate, the name of another controversial justice of the Supreme Court, Aloysius Katsin- Alu, to replace Kutigi as CJN.
Furthermore, a last minute advice to Awokulehin to recuse himself did not sway him. The EFCC has also kept its own part of the bargain; the agency refused to file any petitions against the brazen act of impropriety by Awokulehin. This is contrary to what the Commission did against a justice of the Court of Appeal in Lagos, Bode Rhodes–Vivour, who was found to be meddling in the case against recently jailed PDP chieftain, Bode George, whose bail application was came up this morning.
To celebrate his triumph in Asaba on Monday, the University of Benin will host him at the same campus where Ibori made a Third Class before commencing a life of greed and corruption. An invitation card distributed on Thursday obtained by Saharareporters, signed by the registrar of the institution, shows that Ibori's lecture, which would amount to a taunt of every Nigerian that abhors corruption and abuse of office, would take place at the main Auditorium, at 3 PM prompt.
The Delta State government has made arrangements for Ibori to fly in a Helicopter from Asaba to Benin as soon as the ruling is concluded sometime after 9 AM. Ibori will return to Asaba later in the day for the parties that have been planned with the cooperation and generosity of Governor Uduaghan's administration.
Ibori calculates that since the Southwark Crown court in London has deffered to the case in Asaba by adjourning twice at the instance of the Asaba case, being discharged on Monday would spell a death knell for the London trial of his associates which comes up the next day , November 24, before judge Christopher Hardy.
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