The long running identification trial of an ex-convict James Ibori has never ceased to produce amazing twists or turns along the way. In fact if the metaphor of making a soup is used, the recipe would confound even the most avid gourmet. What this means is that since the judicial process began, issues relating to the case are sometimes mixed up. While most times it had assumed its serious nature, which ordinarily it should be, at other times however, a touch of melodrama if not outright comedy had followed. And if that is not enough, sometimes thrown into this boiling cauldron are clear ingredients called confusion. Though the Abuja high court has not rendered its ruling on the matter, the level of pressure and political power play have been most evident. With the present cast of characters on the identification trial, it could sometimes be easy to lose track of what the real issues are.
It is without doubt a serious matter when Justice Awwal Yusufu, the Upper Area Court Judge who convicted the said James Ibori on September 28th 1995, told the court it was the Governor of Delta State that he convicted. His testimony carries some weight. But at the same time under cross examination by the defence team, Justice Yusufu could not explain how he could be so sure that it was the same person he convicted eight years ago, was the same person as the Governor of Delta State, especially when he dealt with more than a case of the same nature that very day. Even though Justice Yusufu maintained his position that he was certain of his opinion on this matter, his testimony that he met Governor Ibori and he was offered money, and his admission that he advised the governor to file an identification suit, and his voluntary offer to testify for the governor was found contradictory and have since raised some questions of credibility of the judge.
Apart from the serious issues raised at the hearing of the case which must have caused the defence team some nightmares, the affidavit before Justice Hussien Murktar of Abuja high court by a truck driver calling himself James Onanefe Ochuko Ibori that he was the convicted person and not the governor of Delta state is another matter. This fellow who no one had heard of claimed that his father in the lord and Pastor of Gods’s Power Prayer and Deliverance Ministry situated at Orerokpe advised him to give himself up because the crime he committed is causing another person troubles. As soon as this piece of information came out, the truck driver was denounced by the Ibori camp who saw in this development another attempt to tie the governor into a matter he says he was never part of. For Gani Fawehinmi, the prosecution counsel, the entrance of the truck driver was another indication of the desperation of Ibori to confuse issues before the court. As it stands, the Ibori camp has vowed to deny the truck driver should the matter come up in court.
The introduction of the truck driver ranks close to the discovery sometime last year of a Shuaibu Anyebe who was convicted on similar charges and who paid fines as ordered by the court. The Anyebe appearance at a time confused issues as to whether Anyebe was convicted on separate counts, or whether he was the Ibori convicted, and whose identity was obliterated and the governors superimposed. The Anyebe saga and that of the truck driver was the same in the sense it played the dual role of confusing issues and providing some kind of comedy to an otherwise serious matter.
However, if the cameo appearance of these two individuals could easily be dismissed, the role of the police as defence witness have gone through many somersaults that the truth of who is James Ibori risked being obfuscated. First, the police when summoned to appear before the court found all sorts of reasons not to be part of the due process. When they eventually appeared they came barely prepared, and could not supply the court with some of the vital documents related to the identification of a James Ibori. They claimed the documents were missing. Police officer Columbus Okaro representing the police said police case file with registration number IBK\24\95 relevant to the conduct of the on-going identification trial was missing. Mr Okaro was not done with his tales of missing documents, he told the court that a police crime diary opened on December 4, 1993 at the Bwari police station, Abuja, containing details of all the complaints lodged between December 1993 and September 28, 1995 were also gone!
With the court yet to recover its breath over the spate of missing documents, Mr Okaro, unloaded more canons as he went ahead to inform the court that the confidential report written by Police IG Mr Tafa Balogun dated February 14th 2003, on the instruction of the President based on the petition by Governor Ibori of plans by his opponents to besmirch him in the ex-convict saga has also disappeared! With the defence unable to proceed because of obvious lack of support from the police, opposed attempts by the poli ce force t o get the court to accept the final copy of the police report. The defence team said documents before the court was not what was subpoenaed. The court after listening to the arguments of the defence team ordered the police to produce the documents before it at the resumption of hearing on the 27th of September. But with the interest the whole issue had generated it was no surprise the following day shortly after the court adjourned that newspapers carried full page advertorials of the interim report and the final report. Strangely, the conclusions of the two reports conflict in some areas that it is difficult to accept that the same letters came out from the same source.
However, the point being pursued by the Ibori and anti-Ibori camps were that one was real and contained the factual investigation of the police. Those rooting for the interim report say the findings of the police was final, and could not be changed over night since the same persons were interrogated. They say that the so-called final report was an after thought and a product of later day political pressure from high quarters. One of the points being latched on by the Ibori camp is the CFR which appeared with the signature of Balogun on a report he purportedly authored in June 2003 a clear four months before he received the award !
On the other hand, the pro-final report camp says the police account was subject to changes because an investigation was ongoing at the time the interim report was written. The Ibori camp since the court adjourned never failed to hammer the police over what it alleged was its treacherous role in the ongoing saga. They fear that the police can never be a weakness of truth in this matter. With the attack the police was getting , last week , Police spokesman Mr Chris Olakpe, issued a release where he said that the final report being touted was a figment of some people’s imagination because the police never presented a true certified copy. He explained that at the appropriate time the correct report would be presented to the appropriate authority.
In the opening week the Delta government came out with a statement that it was awa re of the possibility that the police would be releasing another copy of a final report. As if on cue two national dailies came out with reports suggesting that the national security agencies have reached the conclusions that a James Ibori was convicted. One paper said the SSS investigations show a James Ibori was convicted While the story reopened the issue of ex-convict it did not offer any fresh insight other than the SSS has reached the same conclusion the Supreme Court reached last year, and is not different from the position of Justice Lawal Gummi internal investigation unit.
Another newspaper was to publish the final report of the police which said the convicted James Ibori is the governor, but this time missing was the CFR of Balogun.. With the latest twist perhaps the defence team might be ruing its tactical misjudgement of forcing the police not to tender this document before the court went on recess. If that had been done the defence team would have had the opportunity to destroy the police evidence, and force it to produce the interim report it says is missing. Yet the defence team may on resumption insist that the first report it demanded be tendered. It is unlikely to accept the final report as the complete picture of police activities. Especially, as the interim report was also copied to other senior officials of state including Governor Ibori. With the pre-hearing media maneuvering the ex-convict hearing promises to be an exciting spectacle at the resumed hearing.
