ABUJA— TWENTY four hours to the commencement of identification trial ordered by the Supreme Court to determine whether Governor James Ibori of Delta State was the same person convicted by an Upper Area Court, Bwari in 1995, an Abuja High Court trying the matter has issued subpoena on five persons including the incumbent Chief Judge of the high court, Justice Lawal Gummi, to produce certain vital documents before him this morning for verification.
Also summoned are the Upper Area Court judge that convicted the James Onanefe Ibori in 1995, Justice Awwal Yusuf, the State Security Service (SSS), Secretary to the National Population Commission (NPC) and the Chief Commissioner of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The subpoena itself was issued by Justice Husseini Mukhtar of the Abuja High Court following a request by the plaintiffs in the case, Messrs Goodnews Agbi and Anthony Alabi.
According to them, they said the quartet was summoned, being in custody of several documents vital to establishing their case beyond reasonable doubt and that no other person in the whole of the country answered James Onanefe Ibori as at the time the offence was committed up till now except the governor. They were also of the view that no other person was convicted about a decade ago before the Bwari Upper Area Court except James Ibori.
The plaintiffs, who are stalwarts of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State had sometime last year approached an Abuja High Court, asking it to restrain the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from presenting or listing the name of Chief Ibori as governorship candidate in Delta State. They also wanted the court to declare him as unqualified for the election on the account that section 182 (1) (e) precluded him from contesting having been allegedly convicted in 1995 by the Bwari Upper Area Court in Abuja over a criminal case.
The said constitutional provision relied on by the plaintiffs reads: “No person shall be qualified for election to the office of the governor of a state if within a period of less than 10 years before the date of election to the office of the governor of a state, he has been convicted and sentenced for an offence involving dishonesty or he has been found guilty of the contravention of the code of conduct.”
But, Governor Ibori had denied severally and strenuously too that he was never a criminal, saying if at all, any James Onanefe Ibori was convicted, he had said it was not him. He had wondered whether he was the only person in the whole of the country or the world that answered the name.
The Supreme Court which rested the matter partially early this year held that though there was a conviction of one James Onanefe Ibori based on the records before it, yet it said that one vital issue was not litigated upon before the trial court. The apex court consequently ordered retrial in the case to identify who exactly the James Onanefe Ibori that was convicted in 1995 was.
Three months after the order was issued, the trial is expected to open in the case this morning since all the parties in the matter had complied with the directive of the trial judge that written briefs should be filed in the matter
Chief FRA Williams (SAN) is representing Governor James Ibori in the matter while Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) is prosecuting the case on behalf of the plaintiffs. The Chairman and the Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh and Chief Ogbulafor have also filed their necessary papers in the suit to explain why they fielded Chief James Ibori in the April 19, 2003 gubernatorial election in Delta State. Chief Fawehinmi (SAN) had also filed his reply yesterday.
Justice Mukhtar is expected to commence examining the merit of the case this morning.
On the persons subpoenaed, Vanguard gathered that the Chief Judge of Abuja High Court, Justice Lawal Gummi, was summoned to produce and expatiate on a report issued by a committee he headed on the matter. The Secretary to the National Population Commission (NPC), Vanguard gathered, was summoned to produce a number of documents on the census conducted in the country in the past three decades to verify whether there were more than one person that answered James Onanefe Ibori in the country.
The Chief Commissioner of INEC was also summoned, Vanguard learnt, mainly to produce relevant documents relating to voters registers in the custody of the commission to verify whether there were more than one person that answered the name in the country. The State Security Service (SSS) was also summoned to assist the court on its findings when it investigated the matter last year.
