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Twist in Ibori ex-convict saga: Case file missing
Tobi Soniyi, Abuja
The controversy surrounding the ongoing trial to identify the James Onanefe Ibori that was convicted in 1995 by the Bwari Upper Area court appears nowhere close to being resolved as the case file upon which the defence hoped to anchor its arguments could not be produced by the police at the resumed hearing of the case on Tuesday.
The police were subpoenaed by the Abuja High Court to produce the case file marked CR81/95.
The file contains the details of the criminal charges leveled against James Onanefe Ibori.
But when called upon to present the case file, the Head of Legal Unit of the Nigeria Police Force, Mr. Colombus Okaro, stunned the audience in the court when he said that the document was missing.
Okaro, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, however, produced two of the eight documents demanded by the defence team.
The two documents are the petition written Governor James Onanefe Ibori to President Olusegun Obasanjo and copied to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun, and the statements made to the police during an investigation into the matter in 2003.
At this point, Chief Milton Ohwovoriole, counsel to the Delta State Governor, said that he would not go on with the defence unless the police produced the eight documents.
The eight documents are the case file, first information report, statement of the accused person in the case marked CR81/95, a copy of Governor's Ibori petition to Obasanjo, the reply of the IG to the governor's petition, and list of criminal matters of the Bwari Upper Area Court for 1995.
Okaro told the court that the first three documents were contained in the case file.
Asked by the trial Judge, Mr. Hussein Mukthar, why he was not able to produce the case file, he said, "I have made very strenuous effort to get the documents. The case file is not with us. The people who investigated the matter at the Bwari Police Station have not been able to produce the case file."
Some pages of the Bwari Upper Area Court proceedings of September 28, 1995 which were presented before the Abuja High Court on July 5 were missing.
The pages were those containing the names of the convict.
The former presiding judge of the Area Court, Justice Awal Yusuf, had on June 30 said that he convicted the present Delta State governor.
Okaro later produced in court, a copy of what he described as police final report into the allegation that it was the governor that was convicted.
Ohwovoriole, however, said that he did not request for the police final report which was dated June 7,2003.
He said, "My Lord the document we asked for is the reply of police investigation sent to President Obasanjo. This reply is dated February 14,2003."
In his reply, the police representative said that he could not lay his hand on the reply, which he chose to call an interim report.
He said that the contents of the interim report which Governor Ibori demanded for had been taken care of in the final report of police investigation.
He said, "There is no reply to the President, what we have is an interim report, which I do not have here with me.
"But I have the final report, which has taken care of the whole report."
The governor's counsel insisted that the police must produce the interim report and not the final report.
Okaro said that the police were not in a position to produce the list of criminal matters of the Bwari Upper Area Court for 1995.
According to him, that was court's document and not that of the police.
On the case diary, he said that he did not understand what the defence meant by case diary and therefore had nothing like that.
The police chief however said that he would go back and search for the other documents.
Arguing that the documents not produced by the police were crucial to their case, Ohwovoriole requested that the hearing be adjourned to enable the police produce the documents.
At the stage, counsel to the plaintiffs, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, objected to the adjournment.
He argued that it was a ploy by the defence to cause delay.
Fawehinmi said that the defence should go ahead with the documents already brought to court or call another witness.
He pointed out that a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Bala Ngilari, had been subpoenaed and asked why the defence could not go ahead to put him in the witness box.
He said, "These people are fishing. The police final report has nailed them, they have been caught unawares. The court should not succumb to an adjournment in the absence of any concrete reasons."
Replying, Ohwovoriole said that he had not gone through the documents brought by the police and was therefore, not in a position to go on with the case.
At this point, the judge intervened saying that since the documents in the custody of the police were crucial to the defence's case, the matter should be adjourned to Wednesday (today).
He therefore ordered the Inspector General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun, to produce the documents at all cost on Tuesday.
Okaro asked for Thursday, but the judge stood his ground, insisting that the documents be produced on Wednesday.
The police had in their report to Obasanjo dated February 14, 2003 exonerated Ibori of any complicity in the case.
The police also recommended that the former Bwari Upper Area Court Judge, Awal Yusuf, be prosecuted.
The report was said to have irked Obasanjo who had had the privilege of going through other reports on the same matter.
The police however, produced another report, which it called the final report.
In the final report, the police made a u-turn from their earlier position and blamed the inadequacies in their first report on 'information available' at the material time.
Two Peoples Democratic Party's chieftains in Delta State, Dr. Goodnews Agbi and Mr. Anthony Alabi claimed that Governor James Ibori was the person convicted in 1995.
As usual the courtroom was jam-packed with people from Delta State who came in solidarity with the governor.
The failure of the police to produce the case file gave the defence a sense of triumph.
At a stage, they accused the police of working in concert with the Plaintiffs to nail Governor Ibori.
Ibori's lawyer, Ohwovoriole, even castigated the representative of the police for not producing some of the documents.
Fawehinmi however came to his rescue.
He told the court not to allow Ohwovoriole to discredit the police representative who was not in the witness box.
In the view of the defence, the police were hiding the interim report because it exonerated the Governor.
At a time Ohwovoriole said, almost shouting, "In the interest of Justice, the police must produce what we asked for and not what suit them.
"It is obvious that the police are now working with Gani."
Fawehinmi expressed surprise at this statement saying, "Are you saying that the police have dumped Ibori?"
The Punch, Wednesday July 28, 2004
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