James Ibori jailed as a petty thief in London ran to Nigeria to be Governor and looted Delta State
James Ibori, the certified thief, who looted the treasury of oil producing Delta State when he was its Governor from 1999 to 2007, is in the news again. Earlier in the week the United Kingdom made its intention known to return £4.2m recovered from the convicted thief by UK agencies. Ibori was convicted on 10-counts charge of money laundering in the UK in 2012. He was jailed and released in 2016. In all, Ibori is accused of stealing a whooping $250m from Delta State coffers. The question is if the UK is returning less than $10m of this loot, where is the remaining? That is the question Nigerians of all hues have been asking since the Brits made their intention known this week.

Nigeria has turned out to be a nation of the more you look the less you see. Corruption has grounded the nation into oblivion. The last time Transparency International situated the nation at the bottom rung of its rating, the Nigerian government cried rivers and seas, claiming it is continuing to fight corruption when reality through the length and breadth of the nation says otherwise. The promised return of the £4.2m of the Ibori loot has already pitched the henchmen in Abuja with those at the helms in Delta State. Nigerians who are cynical about governance in the nation are having a laugh because they know what is coming – with some daring to say that wolves at both ends of the spectrum are waiting to devour the crumbs from the massive loot being offered by the British. In the now plain Nigerian parlance, the loot is about to be re-looted! How about that.

Since Ibori’s release and subsequent “hero welcome” from prison as a felon by his beloved Deltans, the Nigerian government, through its anti-corruption agency the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, has not deemed it fit to put Ibori on trial to recover or made a show of him as it usually does in the pages of newspaper or in the media generally (the legend is Nigeria is fighting corruption in the media). Ibori has continued to enjoy the fruit of his “hard labour” on behalf of Delta State people.

This hardened criminal who started out as petty thief while working in a London supermarket and subsequently jailed, is continuing his role of “godfather” in Delta politics, deploying his enormous loot. He could be seen located in eminent places at official and non-official gatherings in the state. He continues to use his loot to arrest the consciences of the high and mighty, the lowly and vulnerable in Delta State. A clergy man of the cloth recently reminisce on the looting days of Ibori and declared he longed for those days. And the Ogidigbogidigbo, as Ibori used to pride himself during his infamous time as the looter-in-chief of Delta State, is having a big laugh in the unfolding drama, well aware that corruption will never cancel out corruption.