The Trouble With Ibori

Comfort Obi

The day the wreckage of Beechcraft 1900D, the crashed plane belonging to Wings Airline, which killed its three occupants, was found goes down as one of the worst days of Nigerian journalism. It exposed some reports in the media for what they are – Beer Palour Gossips.
Soon after the disappearance of the aircraft, some media houses had alleged that James Ibori, former governor of Delta State, was behind the plane's disappearanc; that it was spirited out of Nigeria, stuffed with Ibori’s dollars and important documents. So, when on August 30, the wreckage was found by hunters, Ibori was quick to rubbish the media. Ibori: “Chief Ibori was the object of that low level attack in both the electronic and print media – accused of spiriting the plane out of the country for several, and atimes, conflicting reasons. Now, the truth, most unfortunately though, is out as the crashed plane has been found. So, I did not arrange for the aircraft to be flown abroad after all, stuffed with dollars and documents as my enemies had stated.” I dread to know what opinion the family members of the dead crew members hold of the media.
I was not a fan of Ibori while he was in office. I am still not his fan. There is something about him that I cannot put my fingers on. He has this very hard, expressionless, empty, faraway look on his face, inspite of his good looks. But on this occasion, my heart goes out to him. Indeed, there had been other times when my heart went out to him: When his mother died and I read his tribute to her just before she was buried, and when his wife, Nkoyo, was arrested and denied bail in London. But at no other time has my heart gone out to him than these past few weeks. Suddenly, Ibori seemed all shattered. His assumed bad boy image seemed to be looming larger-than-life. So Ibori is on the defensive. When he is not denying having a big 50th birthday bash in South Africa, he is defending his wife. “My wife, a citizen of Britain, who was born there, and had an account opened for her by her father, is a political hostage in London,” he said a few days ago. Within a space of one month, Ibori has issued two statements, strongly denying things attributed to him. And the truth: He is right.
The first was recently when a shopping complex collapsed in Abuja, killing and maiming people. The next day after the incident, the media alleged that the collapsed building was Ibori's. Angered by the publication, Ibori issued a statement denying ownership, and threatened fire and brimstone. Nobody refuted his statement. Instead, it seems that the building belongs to a former South-south military administrator. Before that, he had been linked to the Beechcraft 1900D aircraft which disappeared enroute Bebi Airstrip, Obudu Cattle Ranch, on its way, allegedly, to pick Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State. When efforts to locate it proved abortive, rumours took over. One of them: No aircraft was missing. Indeed, a serving Senator confirmed that to a foreign medium. The tragedy is that neither the Senate, nor security agencies, took him on for lying. Some people, including a section of the media, insisted that the Pilot had flown the aircraft out of the country. One proof: On a visit to the pilot’s wife, she insisted her husband was not dead. But very soon, Ibori’s name creeped in. The airline, it was strongly alleged, belong to him. And he had sent the aircraft on a mission outside the country to hide dollars and some documents! This other day, six months after, when hunters stumbled on the crashed airplane, Ibori, short of dancing for joy, called the media irresponsible. First, he said, "we must admit that a large section of the media showed crass insensitivity in this air crash disaster, viewing it not as a national tragedy..."
The story of the missing aircraft and Ibori’s statement is an indictment of the brand of journalism some of us are practising. Some of us sit down in our offices, imagine things, and put it out to the public as the truth. We rely, unfortunately atimes, on beer palour gossips. At no time did this hit me more than in the days which followed the demotion of 140 police officers, including the former EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, to their appropriate ranks. A few times, I had read analysis on the subject which made me wonder whether I was in a nightmare.
One of the worst I read was the one which said that Ibori had boasted, publicly, months before Ribadu was demoted, that he was going to remove “Ribadu from the EFCC and demote him in rank!” The meaning here, as one silly fellow called Emmanuel, who brags that he lives in Canada, pointedly told me in an e-mail is that members of the Police Service Commission, of which I am a member, were paid by Ibori to demote Ribadu. He had asked: "How much did Ibori, your master, pay members of the Commission?" He got that impression from what he read on the internet, published by a section of the Nigerian media. And I wonder if those who make these stupid remarks know the background of members of the Commission? Do they still remember the circumstances under which the Commission’s Chairman, Parry Osayande, a Police DIG, was retired from the Police Force? He rejected blood money meant to induce him to rewrite a report. Do they know that the Permanent Secretary / Secretary to the Commission, Garba Buwai, was one of the Permanent Secretaries who said no to corruption, and followed it up by reporting his minister to then President Olusegun Obasanjo? I have since then been asking: Where did Ibori make the statement, to whom, and on what occasion? Even if Ibori is empty, and/or power-drunk, would he make such a statement publicly? Would somebody please, step forward and say yes, I was there when he made the statement.
So, the question needs to be asked: Why is Ibori at the centre of all these controversies? Why is he going through all these inspite of stories that he funded the presidential campaign of President Yar’Adua? The claim was that Yar'Adua would protect him. How come he was then arrested and detained for more number of days than his colleagues, under Yar'Adua's watch? The truth, a close friend of his lamented recently, could be in his stars. Said he: "I feel for James. I don’t know why all these lies are told against him. We are praying for him. If he is not completely destroyed, he will come out of it stronger and wiser than before.” Well, perhaps.