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Fresh police report indicts James Ibori
Tobi Soniyi, Abuja
The Police final report on their investigation into the James Onanefe Ibori that was convicted in 1995 for negligent conduct and criminal breach of trust may have identified the Delta State Governor as being the Ibori in question.
The positive identification is a clear departure from the interim report by the police, which had suggested that no James Onanefe Ibori was convicted by the Bwari Upper Area Court on September 28, 1995.
But the Delta State Governor has, however, described the final report, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja as an "unacceptable somersault."
President Olusegun Obasanjo had after he received a complaint from the Governor of Delta State that his name was super-imposed on the record of the Bwari Upper Area Court of September 28, 1995 ordered the police to investigate the matter.
In their report dated February 14, 2003, the police said that no one bearing James Onanefe Ibori was convicted by the upper area court.
Obasanjo was reportedly dissatisfied with the interim report since he had allegedly received contrary reports on the same issue from other security agencies.
A source told our correspondent that the police did more investigations and produced a final report, which was dated June 7, 2003.
Governor Ibori had caused an Abuja High Court, which is conducting the trial to identify the James Onanefe Ibori that was convicted to subpoena the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, to produce the document.
The police, however, failed to produce the report on the grounds that the contents were collapsed into the final report.
The insistence of the police to produce only the final report had generated heated arguments between the plaintiff's counsel and defence counsel at the identification trial.
The police, in the final report, concluded, "The issue as to whether one James Onanefe Ibori was charged and convicted by the Upper Area Court, Bwari could not be controverted, especially as the then Upper Area Court judge, Awal Yusuf, consistently maintained that he tried and convicted one James Onanefe Ibori.
"It would be very difficult for any investigation to controvert the direct evidence of Awal Yusuf that it was James Onanefe Ibori that he tried and convicted."
The police had stated in the interim report, "There is no evidence from the Police record and the court records to show that His Excellency, James O. Ibori was investigated by the Bwari Police Station and neither was he charged to Upper Area Court, Bwari for any criminal offence."
"The entry on the FIR No CR87/95 was intentionally altered by one Jafaru Aliyu, the court clerk, to read CR81/95, purporting it to be that of C.O.P vs James Ibori," the earlier report further stated.
Reacting to the final report, Governor Ibori faulted it, saying that it was an after thought.
The governor, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media Relations, Mr. Sheddy Ozoene said, "This is an unacceptable somersault. If at all a so-called final report was written, it must have come into existence in the past few days with the intention to contradict the first, which clearly exonerated Ibori.
"The purported final report by the Police dated June 7, 2003 bears the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun's signature and also has his national award of the Commander of the Federal Republic, (CFR) put beside his name.
"Discerning Nigerians would remember that as at June 7, 2003 when the Inspector-General of Police purportedly signed the final report no such award had been conferred on him.
"This is to show that the so-called final report is an afterthought, manufactured from the blues as no fresh investigation was carried out after the first comprehensive report of February 14th 2003."
The Punch, Friday July 30, 2004
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