Ibori’s conviction national embarrassment, says Falana

ACTIVIST-Lawyer Femi Falana
has described Tuesday’s
sentencing of former Delta
State governor James Ibori in
a London court as a national
embarrassment.
He spoke at a seminar
entitled: “Can the Freedom of
Information (FOI) Act ensure a
corruption-free society?”
organised in Lagos by the
state Council of the Nigerian
Union of Journalists (NUJ) and
the Friedrich Elbert Stiftung, a
German independent non-
profit organisation committed
to the promotion of social
justice and democracy
worldwide.
According to the lawyer,
“James Ibori was convicted
but Nigeria was also
convicted.”
Denouncing the role of
reporters and lawyers in
aiding corruption in the
country, Falana said Ibori did
not easily decide to plead
guilty but did so on the advice
of his British lawyers.
This he said was in
contradiction with the way
some Nigerian professionals
such as reporters and
lawyers act.
“Justice Aondoaka wrote to
the Metropolitan Police that
Ibori had no case to answer...
A judge also said Ibori had no
case to answer,” Falan said.
He said the James Ibori case
will likely to go into the
Guinness book of World
records. “This is the first
time,” he said “that a man, his
wife, his sister, his mistress,
and his lawyer have been
jailed. But as I have said, it is
not Ibori that was jailed, it
was Nigeria that was
convicted. “
Falana however highlighted
the various ways which the
FoI Act could be invoked but
observed that many media
houses have not started to
take advantage of the law.
“We didn’t have any (Economic
and Financial Crimes
Commission) EFCC in the 80s.
The media were our EFCC and
(independent and Corrupt
Practices Commission) ICPC.”
The FOI Act was signed into
law in May, last year by
President Goodluck Jonathan
but Mrs. Remi Ihejirika said,
“we need to ask ourselves
frankly whether the FOI Act
has been effectively
implemented in achieving what
it set out to achieve?”
According to the Chairman of
the NUJ, Deji Elumoye, “the law
ordinarily should make public
records and information freely
available, but for the Official
Secret Act, which prevents
public officers from disclosing
certain kinds of information.”
Falana, however, said “there
is no law in Nigeria preventing
anybody from asking for
information.” He thereby
urged journalists to continue
to “ask for information every
day.”
Meanwhile, the planned return
of $250 million stolen by the
former governor to Delta
State has sparked protest by
Nigerian at home and in the
Dispora.
Their grouse in that
incumbent Governor Emmanuel
Uduaghan will misappropriate
such surely being Ibori’s cousin
and “stooge”.
A statement by the UK-based
Anioma Diaspora, a Nigerian
socio-cultural and good
governance campaign group,
said that “returning Ibori’s
loot to Delta State would be
senseless and counter-
productive in the light of the
fact that the present
governor of Delta State,
Emmanuel Uduaghan, is a blood
relation of Ibori.

Source: www.thenationonlineng.net