By Jonah Fijabi
Hold it!
That’s what popular Abuja lawyer and civil rights activist, Dr. Kayode Ajulo, told the babel of voices condemning the Federal Government’s decision to plough the £4.2 million loot recovered from ex-Governor James Onanefe Ibori into three ongoing federal projects.
Ibori was jailed in Britain for money laundering and the mindless looting of the state treasury during his two terms as governor of the oil rich state.
Britain had, on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Nigeria to return the sum of £4.2 million stolen by Ibori, to the federal government.
While breaking the news to the nation, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, had announced that the money, an infinitesimal part of the over £100 million which the former governor stole and salted to the United Kingdom would be used for the construction of the second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano road, and Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
“The major consideration relating to who is entitled to a fraction or perhaps the money in its entirety is a function of law and international diplomacy,” Malami had said during a television interview. He argued that the law that was alleged to have been breached by Ibori was a federal law and that the parties of interests involved in the repatriation of the funds were national and not sub-national governments.
“All the processes associated with the recovery were consummated by the Federal Government and the Federal Government is, indeed, the victim of crime and not sub-national,” he asserted.
But that didn’t sit well with the Delta State Government, the House of Representatives, some civil rights organisations as well as many prominent citizens of the oil-bearing state, who railed against the decision, describing it as unfair and discriminatory. They insisted that the decision contradicted what was done in the case of Bayelsa and Plateau States, and the repatriated loot should, therefore, go to Delta State where Ibori stole it.
However, Ajulo seriously faulted that line of thought saying it was sentimental and not in sync with the law and the letter and spirit of the agreement reached between Nigeria and the United Kingdom on the matter.
Indeed, Ajulo argued that going by the history of the case and role played by the Delta State Government during Ibori’s trial, it was hypocritical for the state to now shed crocodile tears and continue to rev its agitation for the money.
The lawyer, who thumbed his chest as a counsel and active participant in the matter, said he knew the sequence and every particular detail of the corruption case for which Ibori escaped justice in Nigeria but got caught in Dubai, and eventually tried, convicted and jailed in Britain in February 2012.
Ajulo, therefore, maintained that he was standing on that solid pedestal to remove the veil and hood being deliberately pull over the eyes of the public. Like Malami argued during his television interview on the matter, Ajulo said that the malfeasance committed by Ibori were federal offences and the victim of the crime was the Federal Government.
Ajulo went down memory lane, and recalled that the Patriotic Delta State Elders, Leaders and Stakeholders Forum under the leadership of elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, had, at some points during Ibori’s administration, filed petitions with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, screaming that the governor and his cronies were bleeding the state to imminent death.
Ajulo recalled that the petitioners specifically alleged that the then governor was using the Appropriation Bill to siphon staggering sums totaling about $1 billion (N159 billion then) and his cronies were allegedly manipulating some of the state’s shares.
The civil activist also recalled that despite the staggering evidence of looting supplied by the petitioners, the then chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, deliberately refused to investigate Ibori, claiming that his “hands were tied”.
“Being resolute on the conviction to ensure that justice was meted out against James Ibori who had illicitly enriched himself with the commonwealth of the people of Delta State,” Ajulo revealed, “we proceeded to the Federal High Court for an Order of Mandamus to compel the EFCC to prosecute James Ibori and others.
“It is interesting to recall that the case went through several courts in Abuja, Kaduna and Asaba before it was finally resolved in the United Kingdom. I was present throughout the proceeding till he was convicted and the proceeds of crime were recovered from him.”
The Abuja-based lawyer observed that the disposition of the Delta State Government and some prominent Deltans during the trial did not support the energy with which the Ifeanyi Okowa Administration was claiming ownership of the money for the state.
“As at the time of the trial of James Ibori,” Ajulo continued, “the Delta State Government, with an unslackened enthusiasm, had outrightly denied the looting of its purse by the ex-governor and even questioned the ‘cooked up’ charges against him. In fact, they had believed that lbori was a victim of political machination.”
The Abuja lawyer was not done. He also recalled that the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, headed by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, had, in 2016, ordered that the Delta State Government should not benefit from any recovered fund because of its failure to cooperate with the EFCC during the former governor’s trial, thereby permanently forfeiting the loot to the Federal Government.
Ajulo also did not spare Prof. Itse Sagay, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, PACAC, who, he maintained, had been needlessly campaigning that the repatriated funds be returned to Delta State Government.
The civil rights activist, therefore, submitted that Sagay had no moral justification to spend a day longer on his position as PACAC chairman. He should resign, Ajulo said emphatically.
“Professor Sagay cannot be approbating and reprobating at the same time.” Ajulo maintained. “He cannot be against corruption and still be defending this. The same Prof. Sagay who has been clamouring for the release of the looted funds to Delta State government had strongly condemned the sentencing of James Ibori in the past as being inhumane, savage and malicious.
“The chicken has come home to roost for Delta State and they must bear the consequences of their actions. The people of Delta State and their allies who had said they were not looking for money cannot suddenly claim ownership of the same.”
Quoting the legal ramifications and implications of the Ibori trial, Ajulo submitted that the UK Proceed of Crime Act provides for the confiscation of proceeds of crime to the Crown and that such funds belong to her Majesty’s Government. But the MOU between the United Kingdom and Federal Republic of Nigeria effectively altered that and rightly awarded the ownership of the money to the Federal Government, the lawyer observed.
Ajulo’s words: “It suffices to draw attention to the provisions of the United Nation Convention Against Corruption which are very pungent in this discourse. Article 53 (c) of the Convention requires that a State Party contemplating confiscation enable their appropriate authorities to recognize the claim of another State Party to be a legitimate owner of property acquired through the commission of a Convention offence.
“It, therefore, provides that State Parties to the convention must take such measures as may be necessary to permit its courts or competent authorities, when having to decide on confiscation, to recognize another State Party’s claim as a legitimate owner of property acquired through the commission of an offence established in accordance with the Convention.
“Article 57(1) provides that ‘Property confiscated by a State Party shall be disposed of, including by return to its prior legitimate owners by that State Party in accordance with the provisions of this convention and its domestic law’.
“Article 57(5) provides that ‘Where appropriate, States Parties may also give special consideration to concluding agreements or mutually acceptable arrangements, on a case-by case basis, for the final disposal of confiscated property.’
“From the foregoing, it implies that the procedure to be followed in the final disposal of confiscated property to a beneficiary state would be dependent on the peculiarity of each case.”
Ajulo added everything and submitted that pursuant to the provisions of the United Nation Convention Against Corruption, the United Kingdom had entered into the Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigerian Government to protect the funds from being re-looted; whilst the Federal Government was made to undertake that a Civil Society Organization will monitor the process.
Consequently, the civil rights lawyer advised the Federal Government to invest the repatriated fund, and subsequent ones, if any, on projects that would benefit the people of Delta State and Nigeria at large, as well as the entire citizenry without any preference.
Maintaining that the Delta State Government, like any government, is a continuum and an ally of preceding governments in the state, Ajulo said the Federal Government should appoint true Delta State patriots, led by the venerable elder statesman and former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, who had fought against corruption in the state, as trustees of the utilisation of the funds in Delta State.
This, he said, was a sine qua non, a necessary safeguard to ensure accountability and transparency, and prevent the re-looting of the recovered funds.
