By Baron Ike
James Onanefe Ibori, former governor of Delta State, released from a United Kingdom jail on Wednesday, December 21 was not placed under any Police restrictions and does not have to report to the Police at all, his aide has said.
Ibori’s Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, said in a statement on Thursday, December 2 that his boss was not placed under and Police surveillance with intent to monitor his movements.
He said even a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report of Wednesday, entitled “Nigerian ex-Governor James Ibori Released From UK Jail.”
Eluomunor said: “On Wednesday, the Home Office’s barrister said the government was concerned that Ibori might ‘frustrate confiscation proceedings’ and wanted him kept in jail or subject to strict controls on his movement.
“A Home Office application that Ibori be electronically tagged and subject to strict curfew conditions was also rejected after the judge accepted arguments that the home secretary was attempting to misuse her immigration and deportation powers.”
Eluemunor said the clarification became necessary due to the conflicting reports in several media organisations over the terms guiding his release.
He noted, for instance that a “ mischievous on-line publication misled many Nigerians into believing that Ibori would wear an ankle tag that would beam his whereabouts to the Police and also report weekly to the Police,” saying “but from the quoted BBC report, no such order ever came from the court but from some corrupt and corrupting minds.”
He added that in fact, the BBC, quoting the Judge, Her Honour, Mrs. Justice Juliet May, Queen’s Counsel, said: “The position of the Secretary of State, as very candidly set out by Mr Birdling (representing the home secretary), is that she accepts that there is an argument that she has no power to detain him.”
“I have decided that the balance of convenience falls heavily in favour of his (Ibori’s) immediate release.
“I am not prepared to impose conditions involving tagging or curfews.”
The statement said Ibori thanked God, for making his release from jail possible, “despite the last-minute obstacle the British Secretary of State placed on his way,” noting that he was grateful to his team of lawyers who fought gallantly for his release.
“He sent his heart-felt gratitude to the dozens of mainstream news organisations, especially in Britain and Nigeria, that trained attention on the relentless persecution, instead of prosecution, he was receiving and which also led to the investigation of those who had earlier investigated and prosecuted him; the result was a far-reaching corruption indictments within such agencies. That was when the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, heeding the call of the journalists, demanded a review of the evidence following allegations that police took bribes and prosecutors covered it up,” Eluomunor stated.
He said Ibori thanked his teeming supporters across the country for standing behind him all through his travails, particularly the Niger Deltans for “standing solidly behind him and assured them that the justice and equity they seek both for themselves and others in a peaceful, united, prosperous and just Nigeria will one day be achieved.”
Meanwhile, Ibori’s supporters have been savouring his release with one of his former political associates, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi already in the United Kingdom and hinting of how the former governor still became relevant while serving his jail term.
Nwaoboshi said Ibori made some politicians in the current dispensation while in jail, saying that “Ibori is a great man” whose political future is still bright. “Mandela went to jail, Obasanjo went to jail, all of them went to jail, and that did not stop them from becoming politically relevant meaning that Ibori will still be relevant,” he said.