SAN FRANCISCO October 06, (THEWILL) – James Onanefe Ibori, a former Governor of Delta state has called for independent investigation (public enquiry) into the police corruption and prosecutorial misconduct allegation against his prosecutors, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), as his trial resumes in London.
In a press statement by Ibori’s Media Assistant, Tony Eluemunor, he insisted that the recent National Crime Agency (NCA) review which investigated the allegations from Ibori’s counsel that the prosecution were corrupt and that the CPS erred terribly by withholding pertinent materials from the Defense Team and even out rightly misled the court was flawed.
Eluemunor called this Review a scandalous ‘whitewash’ and cannot be sustained in any free and fair trial even as reasons for the cover up allegation has been established.
“For instance, it is now totally clear that the NCA, which investigated the corruption allegation against the Police officers, is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the same body that funded the original Ibori and Gohil investigations,” he said.
“The same DFID also funded the CPS (the prosecutors), so it is difficult for a DFID-funded body to indict a sister DFID funded body, especially after it has been established that the same DFID signed an agreement with Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that it will have a first line payment of USD$25 million from any monies confiscated from Ibori, before even a penny is repatriated to Nigeria, if Ibori’s conviction is achieved in any way.
“So there is a clear conflict of interest as the DFID, through its various arms, has been engaged in a bounty hunt.
“Moreover, the NCA is the same body which over sees the Proceeds of Corruption section where DC McDonald worked when he investigated Ibori. Thus, NCA would be effectively investigating itself and clearing itself prematurely despite continuing and outstanding disclosure, because that McDonald is tainted over corruption charges and has been as a result, dropped from the Ibori and its related cases.”
Eluemunor condemned the CPS’ stand that its report should be kept away from the media saying it is “another attempt at media manipulation because the mass media should be entitled to receive the disclosed and highly incriminating material and to expose the magnitude of the corruption in these cases so that people should judge the level of malfeasance involved in the judicial persecution that Ibori and his associates have been facing for years now.
“Ibori’s team hereby calls for independent investigation (public enquiry) into the police corruption and prosecutorial misconduct and why it was permitted to happen, including the systematic misleading of the various courts and the Court of Appeal. This is the only way to expose the extent of the corruption and to ensure that it does not happen in future.”
Ibori’s London trial resumes at the Southwark Crown Court in London under His Honour David Tomlinson to enable the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) led by Jonathon Kinnear and Mike Newbold to set out its position in relation to the review.
Story by David Oputah
