[Well, the English justice system has done it for the corrupt Nigerian judicial system: made Ibori confess to being guilty of looting Delta while he was governor for eight years. Nigerian Newspapers that have been filled with news of a plea bargain have acted a script that is now too familiar to most Nigerians: be messengers to whoever can pay. Well, after throwing tons of ill-gotten cash around, cincluding building his own high court where he was "tried" and freed of all guilt, Mr. Ibori seems headed to the Big House where the English prosecutor seems determined to send a man that has gotten away with two previous convictions in Engish courts prior to becoming one of the most powerful men in Nigeria. A mere decade or so separated his Acts I and II in English courts. The link to one of the stories on Ibori's Capitulation Day is below, thanks to Sahara Reporters who has stuck with the Ibori Story for quite a while: the 1991 UK conviction, etcetera.
“Mr Ibori lied his way into public office ... He deceived the authorities and the voters. He was never the legitimate governor and there was effectively a thief in government house", SR quotes Ms. Wass, the prosecutor as saying. What a damning judgement on a country that believes it can somehow arrive at legitimacy and respected nation by pretending at governance. TOLA]
February 29, 2012 at 3:33 am
FROM TOLA’S MAILBOX
My dear Tola,
IT IS INDEED A MONUMENTAL SHAME FROM ALL ANGLES. The hope and prayer is that if the stolen loot is repatriated it will not be siphoned again; and that other looters still shamelessly walking around, including burying father in obscenely grand style, will be convicted, jailed, and stripped of loot all on Nigerian soil.
Stay blessed,
Bisi
February 29, 2012 at 3:43 am
Thanks, Sis. Your prayers must be those of millions of Nigerians as funds often claimed as “recovered” often make second disappearing acts. We have a president who has apparently decided he will not declare his assets nor would his wife obey what is supposedly a constitutional directive. What kind of message does that send to looters in government? What message does Ibori’s own guilty plea in a London court after having been freed by Nigerian courts – send to outsiders? This criminal was reportedly Late Yar Adua’s financier as well as being a major hand in government from Obasanjo’s era. Must we all collectively not fess up to living in a country that, in actual fact, is “a crime syndicate masquerading as a nation” as that blogger predictably described Nigeria a few years back? What do all these portend for Nigeria’s already battered image of a sort of cowboy country where anything goes?
Regards,
TOLA.