Date Published: 04/26/10

Sir,

On Ibori and run of his life

Everybody knew that Ibori’s days as a free man were numbered when the EFCC pointed its torchlight on him. Ibori effectively was given strong cover by the ailing President Yar’Adua. He was allowed to call the shots at the Presidency when Yar’Adua was healthy. Locally and internationally, people questioned why such a man with so many questions to answer was allowed by Yar’Adua. The reason was not farfetched: Ibori was alleged to have contributed billions of Naira to the campaign that brought in Yar’Adua to power.

Even while Ibori was one of the arrowheads that ensured that Yar’Adua still ruled from sickbed (through his wife, Turai); and his alleged past corrupt practices still alive, he was pictorially recorded in the print-media in February, in company of Governor Godswill Akpabio, on a weekend courtesy call on the ousted NNPC boss, Barkindo. It was alleged that the visit had something to do with fronting for an American company prospecting for oil-block allocation; the exercise that has been put on hold by Jonathan acting presidency. 

The question one has for Ibori is: If you have nothing to be afraid of, why are you running away from EFCC invitation? And the question for DIG Udom Ekpoudom (in charge of Zones 5 & 6): Can you convince the public that your instruction to the retinue of Mobile Policemen attached to Ibori could not ensure his arrest? The inglorious part played by Ekpoudom during the case of the native doctor and former NDDC Chairman, Ambassador Sam Edem, in his case with Governor Akpabio is still fresh in peoples mind. And to IG Onovo: Why did you succumb to pressure of posting DIG Ekpoudom to cover Zone 5 & 6, knowing the inglorious antecedents he is associated with in that zone when he served as AIG?

For arrest of Ibori to succeed, the IG of Police must be sincere and mean business; he and his officers should stop clowning and taking Nigerians for granted.

Cecilia Ekong, Plot 845 Solomon Lar Way, Utako District, ABUJA