Alleged N1.6b phony aircraft: Ibori tackles EFCC
EMBATTLED former Governor of Delta State Chief James Ibori has faulted a claim by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he is being investigated for allegedly purchase of a N1.6 billion bombardier aircraft.
Ibori, who is standing trial in Britain court of alleged money laundering, said he is a victim of international conspiracy and media manipulation.
In a statement through his media aide, Tony Eluemunor, the former governor accused the anti-graft agency of plotting to sway the Southwark Court in London to try him for money laundering.
The statement reads: “It is unfortunate that while Nigerians wait in vain for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to unravel the massive petrol subsidy scam through which the nation loses billions of Naira daily, EFCC is busy fighting yesterday’s battles. And when not repeating old lies, it is manufacturing spectacular new ones just to hoodwink the public.
“By sponsoring the totally idiotic and irredeemably nasty story which alleged that Ibori laundered money in the guise of buying a private jet, which the EFCC now says was never bought, the EFCC should now tell Nigerians whether it is incompetent or a lie-enchanted agency or both.
“This is because the same EFCC has for over seven years claimed that it had uncovered how Ibori purchased a Challenger private jet from Canada.
“Now, if the EFCC is saying, seven years after it began its investigation, years after the agency arrested Ibori and charged him before a Kaduna judge and court, the same EFCC hand-picked, years after the full amount for the jet was said to have been restrained by a British Court, is it now that the case against Ibori in a London Court has entered the home stretch that the EFCC has suddenly realised that its claim that Ibori bought a private jet was totally unfounded?
“Now, where does that leave an on-line blog and its story, ‘How James Ibori bought a Challenger jet’, now that the EFCC has confessed that Ibori never bought a private jet?
“Will Ibori be expecting an apology from the media organisations that misled the public by trumpeting that lie cooked up by EFCC?
“The truth is that Ibori has been a victim of media manipulation and international conspiracy aimed at scoring a sinister political goal.”
Ibori also claimed that the EFCC is trying to pre-empt his trial by the Southwark Court.
The statement added: “Now that the trial has started, and time for the EFCC and the London police to prove their corruption charges against Ibori, the London police dramatically dropped all corruption charges for want of evidence.
“With that alone, they vindicated Justice Marcel Awokulehin’s ruling at the Asaba Federal High Court that there was no iota of evidence to back the corruption charges the EFCC had instituted against Ibori in Nigeria.
“After years of Ibori’s corruption trial in Nigeria, all that faces him in London today is nothing but money laundering charges.
“Suddenly, the corruption charges trumpeted by sundry persons from E. K. Clark to Nuhu Ribadu and his two successors, that Ibori defrauded Delta State, evaporated!
“The London prosecutors, instead of proving corruption beyond all reasonable doubt, wishes to prove money laundering against Ibori through inference only, that is, by convincing a jury of white persons about the guilt of a Nigerian politician, where Ibori will be forced to carry the full weight of Nigeria’s well-recognised unsavory image abroad. Finish.
“It is to sway the jury in the case and misinform the Nigerian public that the EFCC dreamed up this latest charge from the pit of hell – money laundering in the guise of buying a private jet.
“Was it not the same EFCC that claimed that Ibori had a private jet when none existed? Why did the EFCC not go the whole hog and confess that it lied against Ibori concerning that private jet claim?
“And even when the London case is now on the home stretch, the EFCC said in that planted story that it was still investigating this latest money laundering claim through a million countries. Lesson; Nigerians should not expect a full report from it!
“One day the true story of the anti-corruption lies will be told and Nigerians will know the real faces behind the masquerades they have been misled to applaud.”
EMBATTLED former Governor of Delta State Chief James Ibori has faulted a claim by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that he is being investigated for allegedly purchase of a N1.6 billion bombardier aircraft.
Ibori, who is standing trial in Britain court of alleged money laundering, said he is a victim of international conspiracy and media manipulation.
In a statement through his media aide, Tony Eluemunor, the former governor accused the anti-graft agency of plotting to sway the Southwark Court in London to try him for money laundering.
The statement reads: “It is unfortunate that while Nigerians wait in vain for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to unravel the massive petrol subsidy scam through which the nation loses billions of Naira daily, EFCC is busy fighting yesterday’s battles. And when not repeating old lies, it is manufacturing spectacular new ones just to hoodwink the public.
“By sponsoring the totally idiotic and irredeemably nasty story which alleged that Ibori laundered money in the guise of buying a private jet, which the EFCC now says was never bought, the EFCC should now tell Nigerians whether it is incompetent or a lie-enchanted agency or both.
“This is because the same EFCC has for over seven years claimed that it had uncovered how Ibori purchased a Challenger private jet from Canada.
“Now, if the EFCC is saying, seven years after it began its investigation, years after the agency arrested Ibori and charged him before a Kaduna judge and court, the same EFCC hand-picked, years after the full amount for the jet was said to have been restrained by a British Court, is it now that the case against Ibori in a London Court has entered the home stretch that the EFCC has suddenly realised that its claim that Ibori bought a private jet was totally unfounded?
“Now, where does that leave an on-line blog and its story, ‘How James Ibori bought a Challenger jet’, now that the EFCC has confessed that Ibori never bought a private jet?
“Will Ibori be expecting an apology from the media organisations that misled the public by trumpeting that lie cooked up by EFCC?
“The truth is that Ibori has been a victim of media manipulation and international conspiracy aimed at scoring a sinister political goal.”
Ibori also claimed that the EFCC is trying to pre-empt his trial by the Southwark Court.
The statement added: “Now that the trial has started, and time for the EFCC and the London police to prove their corruption charges against Ibori, the London police dramatically dropped all corruption charges for want of evidence.
“With that alone, they vindicated Justice Marcel Awokulehin’s ruling at the Asaba Federal High Court that there was no iota of evidence to back the corruption charges the EFCC had instituted against Ibori in Nigeria.
“After years of Ibori’s corruption trial in Nigeria, all that faces him in London today is nothing but money laundering charges.
“Suddenly, the corruption charges trumpeted by sundry persons from E. K. Clark to Nuhu Ribadu and his two successors, that Ibori defrauded Delta State, evaporated!
“The London prosecutors, instead of proving corruption beyond all reasonable doubt, wishes to prove money laundering against Ibori through inference only, that is, by convincing a jury of white persons about the guilt of a Nigerian politician, where Ibori will be forced to carry the full weight of Nigeria’s well-recognised unsavory image abroad. Finish.
“It is to sway the jury in the case and misinform the Nigerian public that the EFCC dreamed up this latest charge from the pit of hell – money laundering in the guise of buying a private jet.
“Was it not the same EFCC that claimed that Ibori had a private jet when none existed? Why did the EFCC not go the whole hog and confess that it lied against Ibori concerning that private jet claim?
“And even when the London case is now on the home stretch, the EFCC said in that planted story that it was still investigating this latest money laundering claim through a million countries. Lesson; Nigerians should not expect a full report from it!
“One day the true story of the anti-corruption lies will be told and Nigerians will know the real faces behind the masquerades they have been misled to applaud.”
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