Daily Independent Online.
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Monday,July 19, 2004.
Ibori: The trial of innocence
By Dan Amor
A careful, unbiased and disinterested
study of Julius
Caesar, one of
Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedies and easily the most notable of
his political dramas, shows that intrigues, back-stabbing and mischief, are but
the essential elements in politics.
This problem goes far deeper than the relation between private and
public virtue, which is in some degree the theme of the play. It includes, among other problems, that
of the relation between innocence and virtue, or at least between innocence of
character and effectiveness of moral action. It is an old dilemma.
In spite of the vicious antics of the Epicurean Cassius, the case of
Brutus is that of the liberal intellectual in a world of Realpolitick - a
familiar enough case in the modern world.
But innocence sometimes plays into the hands of evil; only the tarnished
and sophisticated mind can achieve that approximate good which alone lies
within human reach.
Yet, to imagine that, even at the turn of the
twenty-first century, Nigerian politicians could be so manifestly crude and
villainous as to sponsor the grueling assassination of their opponents, is to
contemplate the mere labeling of a man who has never been docked in a court of
law as an ex-convict a generous exercise.
It would be recalled that in January 2003, ever before the ex-convict
case gained currency, Governor James Ibori of Delta State had raised alarm and
subsequently petitioned President Olusegun Obasanjo that certain political
opponents who were hell-bent on taking over power from him had tampered with
court records in a certain court in Abuja in order to destroy his political
career. Ibori discovered the plot
of his enemies following a mischievous document which was being circulated in his
State during the 2003 electioneering campaign alleging that he is an
ex-convict. On the strength of
this petition, the President directed an investigation by the Inspector General
of Police (IGP), which confirmed to a large extent, the allegation of forgery
and doctoring of court records by court officials in order to implicate the
governor.
In its March 10, 2003 edition, The NEWS magazine reports the Police
investigation of the allegation which graphically states thus: “There is
no evidence from the Police record and the court record to show that His
Excellency, James O. Ibori, was investigated by Bwari Police Station and
neither was he charged to Upper Area Court, Bwari for any criminal
offence”. The Police
investigation revealed instead that it was one Shuaibu Anyebe who was charged
to Upper Area Court, Bwari on September 28, 1995 for negligent conduct and
criminal breach of trust and was convicted and sentenced to six months
imprisonment on First Information Report (FIR) No. CR81/95. The report stated clearly that the said
Shuaibu Anyebe was the security guard in whose custody zincs were kept at
Abattoir at the Divisional Headquarters, Bwari and who could not explain how
those zincs were stolen. Anyebe
has since admitted that he was convicted and had to pay N500 as an option. Yet, curiously, Ibori’s framers
have not told the world whether he was the common thief that stole the zincs or
the security guard who was convicted on account of negligent of his duty.
The Orwellian qualities and nightmarish implications
of the allegation make one sick. Was
James Ibori a security guard in 1995?
Was Ibori purportedly taken to court without criminal investigations by
the Police? As investigation at
the Divisional Police Headquarters Bwari, has shown, a case file No. IBK 24.95
and the crime diary which was opened on December 12, 1993 where the complaint
was initially incidented on the alleged case of “negligent conduct and
criminal breach of trust” against one Shuaibu Anyebe, an Idoma by tribe,
where was the one preferred against Ibori recorded? If Nigerian politicians would be courageous enough to drop
their bring-him-down syndrome and develop the political will to lift the nation
from the stranglehold of underdevelopment, the people will be the ultimate
beneficiaries. In fact, Ibori has
been touted as one of the few governors in Nigeria who have ignited a spark of
reality among their people in the present dispensation. Perhaps that is the problem. It has attracted this hurling of dirt
at him.
It is indeed amazing that some people could be so
determined to employ all devious means to ridicule the Nigerian judiciary. Otherwise, why would the same Alhaji
Awaal Yusuf, who was interrogated by the Police as one of the conspirators who
allegedly superimposed Ibori’s name on the court record in order to
implicate him, be allowed to embark on a benign identification parade of one
whose picture he sees everyday on the television and in the pages of
newspapers? As reported by TheNEWS edition of March 10, 2003 pages 28
and 29, “Our legal system demands that any criminal case against any
person should be reported to the police, investigated and charges preferred
against the suspected(s) for prosecution.
All these requirements are conspicuously absent in the alleged case of
conviction of His Excellency James O. Ibori. It is therefore clear that there was no criminal case
reported against Governor James O. Ibori nor was there any evidence of his
trial and conviction at the Upper Area Court, Bwari as alleged. There is, however, evidence of
conspiracy and forgery against Alhaji Mohammed Awaal Yusuf (The Judge), Musa
Garba (Current Registrar), Ibrahim Yau (Former Registrar) and Jafaru Aliyu (the
Court Clerk) and the burden of proof has shifted to them to show evidence of
such conviction”.
Admittedly, it is now loud and clear that this is yet
another tale of the emperor who wore no clothes. Only the innocent saw that he was naked. It is potentially disastrous that ours
is a democracy gone mad. The Ibori
saga has come down from a very high political drama to prick our bloated ego as
a nation steeped in moral debauchery and hate. And, of course, an inalienable part of this political
witch-hunt is the attempt to use the judiciary to add a vigorous fillip to the
present diabolic focus on Ibori.
While this group of evil jesters are plotting to humiliate the governor,
it is invariably accusing the Supreme Court justices of collecting a bribe of
N5 billion from him, just to sway the course of justice. Yet, nobody appears to
be doing anything about it. But
this case has thrown a pebble in our pool of complacency and placid
hypocrisy. It is an expanded
metaphor for our decadent political culture. Yet, sooner than later the truth shall shine forth in
solitary, star-like splendour.
