IboriGate: The Jungle called Nigeria

By UTHMAN AKINBOLA

[05/07/13]

“Ibori bought:

- A house in Hampstead, north London, for £2.2m

- A property in Shaftesbury, Dorset, for £311,000

- A £3.2m mansion in Sandton, near Johannesburg, South Africa

- A fleet of armoured Range Rovers valued at £600,000

- A £120,000 Bentley

- A Mercedes Maybach for 407,000 euros that was shipped direct to his mansion in South Africa”

News

Headline: ‘Former Nigeria governor James Ibori jailed for 13 years’

‘A former London DIY store cashier, James Ibori, who became governor of an oil-rich Nigerian state, has been jailed for 13 years for fraud totalling nearly £50m ($77m) …whereas he had been acquitted on all counts earlier in his country, Nigeria..’

Welcome to Nigeria

A country:

…where a “common criminal and thief” would rule as governor of a state for eight years

… where a suspended Director General (DG) would attend (twice) a National Economic meeting chaired by the President – a meeting for a DG on duty

…where the First Lady is appointed a Permanent Secretary in the civil service in one of the States

… where a former President would brazenly accuse legislators as criminals; and he was instrumental (directly and indirectly) to the (s)election of majority of them by virtue of his ‘unquantifiable’ power as President of the country and later Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of the ruling party

…where wealth and suffering abound – a nation where natural resources and wretchedness are identical twin brothers 

IboriGate

“…Ibori ‘deliberately and systematically’ defrauded the people he was elected to represent.”

 “He was governor of Delta State between May 1999 and May 2007.”

 “He was convicted in 1991 of stealing from a Wickes DIY store in Ruislip, North West London, where he was cashier.”

“…but then returned to Nigeria and became governor...”

“When he ran for governor he lied about his date of birth to hide his criminal conviction...”

Ibori “lived modestly in London in the 1990s and became a multi millionaire high profile governor some eight or nine years later."

“One of the counts Ibori admitted related to a $37m (£23m) fraud pertaining to the sale of Delta State's share in Nigerian privatised phone company V Mobile.”

“Despite admitting stealing tens of millions of pounds from state coffers meant to help some of the poorest people in Nigeria, he still has some important friends.”

            – no wonder he was acquitted on all counts in Nigeria.