When the ex convict case came up against the former Delta State Governor, James Onanefe Ibori, many people claimed he was being victimised because he supported Atiku for President in 2003. Many did not even want to critically assess the situation that as an ex convict, he had moral issues that does not qualify him to be a Governor of a State. His supporters and political appointees concluded that the former President Olusegun Obasanjo was behind his travails. He and the former Governor of Edo State were going about as the victims and were wiping up sentiments for their self-imposed plight.
They had a lot of the journalists on their pay roll so any time the Agencies fighting corruptions and embezzlement of public fund make to probe their activities, these journalists will be writing against these Agencies. These Governors were the real aggressors and the most corrupt Governors in Nigeria. A friend once jokingly claimed that James Ibori is richer than Nigeria to the extent that his physique shows it. My friend claimed that there is no space between his shoulders and his chin. He claimed his neck is short and covered with mass of flesh. He was so fat that he needed 6yards of fabrics for his ceremonial wrapper. To my friend, that is the evidence of wealth or having plenty money (People's money). We may want to argue that he was already rich before becoming a Governor but place the pictures before becoming a Governor and after eight year of being Governor of oil rich Delta State. The differences will attest to what we are saying. Have you? Did you see his neck then and now? Were you not seeing the neck before? Now do you see his neck? is it not shoulder and the head? Well if you look closer, you would see what the people of his state are saying.
When Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, the former Economic and Financial Crime Commission boss tried arresting him for prosecution, he played up the immunity for Governors as contained in the Nigerian Constitution. Ribadu tried all the tactics he knew and learnt in the Police Force to arrest him but it was to no avail.
In 2006, the illegal Governors forum with the prompting of James Ibori presented YAR ADUA as Presidential candidate in 2007. With their rigging and ballot snatching, Yar Adua won and was sworn in. James Ibori starting going around as the King makers and the people determining the future of Nigeria.
In 2010, the table turned. A "new Pharaoh that did not know Joseph" became the President of Nigeria. the new president in the person of GOODLUCK JONATHAN, gave the EFFC free hands to arrest and prosecute corrupt government officials and Jame Ibori was one of them. The former Governor did everything he could to avert the calamity that was coming his way but he could not. After using his thugs in his village to confront the police , he flee to Dubai. But the long arm of the LAW caught up with him there.
Finally, he is going to stand trial for embezzling government fund. If found guilty, then he will pay for all the crime committed against his state.
