IBORI MOVES FROM PRISON TO NATIONAL HOSPITAL

James Ibori

Ex Governor of Nigeria's oil rich Delta state, Mr James Ibori, who is being held at the Kaduna prison for allegedly stealing millions of dollars belonging to the state, may have been moved to the National Hospital in the Nigeria capital, Abuja, for health reasons.

Incredibly wealthy Ibori, who was refused bail by the court before christmas because he is a flight risk, was moved on the orders of the internal Affairs minister, Godwin Abbe. It was learnt that though his ailment is hypertention related, it could not be confirmed if he developed it while in prison, or he has a history of it.

It will be recalled that prison authorities at the Kaduna prison had earlier dispelled rumors that James Ibori took ill in prison. In a press interview on Tuesday, James Ibori’s close associate and a former commissioner in his administration, Dr. Festus Okubor claimed that James Ibori had taken ill in Kaduna prison, a notion that was quickly dispelled by the comptroller of Kaduna prison, Alhaji Momoh Momodu.

However, the intervention of the minister of interior affairs had been on-going since the first week James Ibori was remanded in Kaduna prison. Sources at the Kaduna prison disclosed that James Ibori never slept in the prison yard; instead he was ferried out every night to stay at a five star hotel in Kaduna and brought back to his luxurious prison flat in the VIP wing of the Kaduna prison.

The latest action of the minister of internal affairs stems from the frustration of Ibori’s legal and political team to secure definite assurance from the judge handling his trial that James Ibori will be granted bail on Friday January 11th 2008 when his trial comes up at the Federal High Court in Kaduna.

Sources in Abuja said a meeting took place at Baba Gana Kingibe’s Guest House in Maitama area of Abuja where it was revealed that the judge handling james Ibori's case was not a the mood to grant him bail on Friday, it was thus decided that the minister of internal affairs should move James Ibori out of Kaduna prison for now.

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As a strategy to prove that James Ibori is really sick, he may not appear in court on Friday. Another option decided by the group was for James Ibori to return to the Federal High Court in Kaduna on Friday for the continuation of his bail application, where his dramatic hospitalization is expected to play a major role in swaying the judge to grant him bail due to his medical condition.

Another source told Saharareporters that James Ibori was driven to Abuja by road earlier tuesday to seek medical treatments for “hypertension related illness”, a scheduled plan to fly him to Abuja by a police helicopter was abandoned because the Federal government felt it will lend credence to the general belief that Nuhu Ribadu’s questionable removal was done to please James Ibori and get him off the hook.

The VIP section of the National Hospital Abuja is notorious for harboring economic crimes fugitives hounded by the EFCC, with the help of unscrupulous medical doctors; so many high ranking government officials have used the cover of the National Hospital to evade the harsh realities of prison life. It will be recalled that the former governor of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamani checked himself into the VIP section of the National Hospital to avoid arrest. He later surrendered to EFCC operatives after a few days standoff at the hospital. Also, former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun spent most of his 6-months prison term at the VIP section of the National Hospital after he was convicted for stealing N17 billion belonging to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

On the London front, two female associates of James Ibori- Bimpe Pogoson and Christie Ibie-Ibori appeared before a UK Magistrate court yesterday to face trial for offenses related to money laundering in the UK. The Magistrate court, which sat briefly, adjourned the case till January 29 2008 and transferred it to the Southwark Crown Court in London, a preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 29 2008.

A Mets Police source in London told Saharareporters that depending on how the women plead before the Southwark Crown Court on January 29, the trial of the two women will likely end around September –October 2008. The women are out on bail until the next court date.