In an interview with Punch Saturday, Niger Delta leader, Chief Edwin Clark has said that several Nigerian politicians of the same timber as former Delta Governor James Ibori should have been in prison if the judiciary in Nigeria was a force to be reckoned with.
Clark blamed the judiciary system as well as the lax attitude to prosecution in the country for corrupt leaders as responsible for the freedom of so many corrupts.
Here is an excerpt:
Do you feel your campaign against former Delta State governor, James Ibori, was successful with what happened to him and what he’s going through?
Ibori’s case is just one case. I am sorry to say that many of the governors have been charged to court and their cases have been in court for over six years unheard; nobody cares about them. I wrote an open letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria at the time and he replied and said yes, I was right and he tried to pinpoint what went wrong. Senior Advocates of Nigeria go to court to adjourn cases; they do all kinds of things to delay trials. Meanwhile, justice is being denied. Some of these governors are now senators in the National Assembly. They behave as if they have not committed any offence. Can you imagine people like Bukola Saraki are now senators? Nobody has asked about what he did to Societe Generale Bank where shareholders and depositors lost their money. He behaves as if nothing has happened. What of the money which he borrowed that has been written off by the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria? Today, the (suspended) governor of CBN is one of those shouting on top of their voices about corruption. What a disgrace. Some of these people should be charged to court. You had a former President of this country who left prison penniless. Today, he is one of the billionaires in this country. Yet, he is the one who shouts the loudest about other people. These are some of the problems we are facing. Ibori is just one out of many cases. Ibori has not done what others have not done. If he had not gone to Britain, he couldn’t have been jailed; he wouldn’t have admitted that he committed the crime. The charges against him here were 70 and a judge freed him in two hours and that judge has just retired. I am surprised that the judiciary has not dealt with such judges. It is only in this country that you have perpetual injunctions, you cannot be arrested, you cannot be prosecuted. But today, people talk about this government not being able to tackle corruption. I think that Ibori’s case should be a lesson to the judiciary. The bar association should do something about its erring members. It is not enough to say Mr. President is not fighting corruption. The President is an individual; he cannot do it alone. Is he the prosecutor in court? Is he the judge in the court? EFCC and ICPC should do their jobs; they do not need interference from the government.