*Praise British legal system
*Want FG not to persecute the ex-governor
By Sam Nwokro
A cross-section of Nigerians
have praised the British legal system for the manner it has managed to stay neutral in the legal twist and turns involved in the Chief James Ibori trial and conviction in 2012 by a British Crown court.
The former governor of Delta state is being expected in Nigeria, having been declared free by Justice May of the British Crown Court since last Monday December 19, 2016, when he finished serving the jail term of five years.
As the former governor’s hometown of Oghara in Delta State prepares to welcome him, the Niche random chat with Nigerians on how they view the Ibori trial, conviction and release shows that people sympatise with Ibori. Still some believe there is much more to the Ibori travails than mere war on corruption. Yet more think the man’s odyssey would not serve any lesson because according to them: “Everyone is in it. Ibori only was unfortunate because the gang up against him was overwhelming”.
Others too believe that the war against the man may not end so soon because they believe his ‘Nigerian enemies’ are still around and would wish he does not even get justice at all in British courts even under law. There have been many lessons and of course issues bordering on the fundamental crucibles of law, order and equity which the Ibori travail has thrown up and which may affect the course of the corruption war in the days ahead.
There is a consensus however:-the man has been made to atone for ‘wrongs’, being the second such public officer in the caliber of a state chief executive serving a jail term outside the Nigerian legal circuit, and with a tinge of unsettling irony: In the courts and jailhouses of those behemoth political public trustees and their commercial allies in the corporate sectors who have superintended the high caliber rape of Nigeria’s oil resources since 1958.
According to Barrister Jude Ejimba of Ejim & Ejims Law firm, “The Ibori’s trial has been one of the most complex legal tango in Nigeria’s bi-national jurisprudence. Nigeria actually had Legal Exchange treaty with Britain since our legal system and theirs are the same; in fact in every aspect. But I believe some powers made sure he was tried abroad, notwithstanding the Immunity laws and all that. There is no thing that warrants his prosecution outside our legal circuit. But there could have been a lot intrigues, and the fact that he was arrested abroad aided. But all in all, it is something aberrant and we must stop the practice of prosecuting public officers whether serving or former outside our legal circuit. It is a negative corporate sovereign”.
A newspaper vendor, Mr. Cyriacus Chika said: “There is nothing wrong in celebrating freedom. Myself I have been to detention before just on police investigation talk less of prison term. Freedom is sweet. And his people love him. After all he fights for their interests. So why anybody should be surprised that a welcome party is being organised for him. Is he the only ex-governor that carried money? We still hear that of other ones.”
