Come Out Of Hiding, EFCC Tells Ibori. This is a Political Persecution – Ibori

San Francisco, April 14, (THEWILL) – The media war between The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori continued today with both parties issuing statements after local newspapers published in an advertorial a copy of the letter of invitation from the EFCC which was delivered to Ibori’s residence yesterday.

THE EFCC STATEMENT

Come Out Of Hiding, EFCC Tells Ibori

The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to an advertorial in some newspapers accusing the anti-graft agency of political persecution against the former Delta state governor, Chief James Onanefe Ibori.

The basis for the accusation was that Chief Ibori was declared wanted the same day he received a letter of invitation from the Commission. We therefore wish to state as follows:

I. Chief James Ibori knows quite well that the EFCC has been looking for him for interrogation for over four weeks.

ii. When it was becoming increasingly difficult to locate him, the Commission decided to get in touch with officials of Delta state government to extend our invitation to the former governor through them.

iii. Precisely on March 22, 2010, our operatives investigating the case involving Chief James Ibori visited Delta and met with state officials in government house, Asaba to help the Commission get in touch with Chief Ibori to honour our invitation.

iv. Through the same state officials, Chief Ibori got back to our operatives on March 25, 2010, to ask that our operatives should return to Delta to interview him in the government house instead of him coming to the EFCC office, Abuja.

v. The leadership of the Commission rejected the trap and insisted Chief Ibori should honour our invitation by coming to our office in Abuja.

vi. It is obvious that Chief Ibori has gone into hiding since then. And as such, our decision to declare him wanted was based on our previous contacts with him and not on the letters being referred to in the advertorial.

vii. We also like to state that it is presumptuous to express concerns about the Commission re-investigating a matter for which Chief Ibori had earlier been discharged by a court in Asaba. Our invitations to Chief Ibori have nothing to do with the case decided by the Asaba court as the Commission has already appealed that ruling. We need him to answer questions based on fresh allegations bordering on official corruption and money laundering.

viii. We therefore want to assure Chief James Ibori that the Commission respects the rule of law and individual rights and we will treat him with decorum as demanded by the law.

ix. While assuring him that our action is not in any way dictated by any political consideration, we implore him that what is important to us and cardinal to the course of justice at this moment is that he should come out of hiding and honour our invitation.

Femi Babafemi, Head, Media & Publicity, 14/4/2010. 

THE IBORI STATEMENT

EFCC’S PRESS STATEMENT VINDICATES ME THAT I WAS NEVER

INVITED; SAYS IBORI

Chief James Onanefe Ibori has refuted what he called “Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s curious claims” of Wednesday 14th April 2010, that the agency invited him by “proxy” to answer certain questions in their office. He said “there was never a time that any invitation was passed on to me through third parties, so I stand on my earlier grounds that the claim that EFCC ever invited me until I received a letter delivered to my Lagos house on Tuesday, is a wicked lie. This is because no government agency worth its salt would even contemplate inviting anyone for questioning through messages allegedly given to third parties.”

Beyond that, Ibori said in a press statement signed by his Media Assistant, Mr. Tony Eluemunor, that all the claims of invitation by proxy does not detract from the fact that there are well-known procedures of inviting someone for questioning.  He said that such procedures were not followed in this case when the announcement that he had been declared wanted was made by 10 am on Tuesday but he did not get any letter on invitation until 4:22 pm – and that over an hour after he had issued a statement denying that EFCC ever contacted him. So, he said, it is obvious that that letter was rushed in as a face-saving measure.

Ibori reminded the EFCC that it claimed in its statement of Tuesday 13^th April that the agency had sent in letters to Ibori’s homes in Lagos and Abuja, but so far, no letter has been delivered to his Abuja home, so this is another lie that EFCC has to find another lie to explain away.  He also asked the agency to remember that various news organizations openly quoted EFCC’s spokesman, Mr. Femi Babafemi, to the effect that the agency had never declared Ibori wanted, and he never denied making such statements.

All such publications were made within the past three weeks; the exact time frame agency now claims it had been on a search for Ibori. Most of all, Ibori would want Nigerians to note that even in the letter that was rushed to him at 4:22 pm on Tuesday, the agency asked him to report to their office on the 17^th of April, 2010 – a date still very much in the future, yet EFCC’s latest statement asked him to come out of hiding. Not even EFCC has contradicted this fact. That is the utmost proof that the rush to declare him wanted was for EFCC to serve the political purposes of its masters as they get desperate as Nigeria goes into an election year. Owing to this, Ibori maintained that it should be obvious to the public now that what he is going through is not criminal prosecution but political persecution, and that the age of impunity has returned to Nigeria by a cabal in power.

Signed: Tony Eluemunor, Chief Ibori’s Media Assistant.