IBORI BRIBED ME WITH N2.4B AND TRIED TO ASSASSINATE ME - NUHU RIBADU

It has been revealed that former Delta State Governor James Ibori
tried to bribe anti-corruption boss Nuhu Ribadu in 2007 with $15
million (about N2.4 billion) in cash in a bag so heavy one man alone
could not lift it, Ribadu told a London court on Thursday.
Ribadu said he pretended to take the bribe ...
because he wanted the cash
as evidence to use against Ibori in a prosecution, but rather than
keep the money for himself he had it taken straight to the Central
Bank of Nigeria to be kept safe in a vault.
He told the court that about $1 billion flowed from federal government
accounts into Delta State coffers during Ibori's eight years in power,
and he estimated Ibori had stolen or wasted more than half of that
amount.
Ribadu, who was chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) from April 2003 to December 2007, was giving
evidence at a confiscation hearing in which prosecutors are seeking
court orders to have Ibori's assets seized.
Under Nigeria's constitution, state governors enjoy immunity from
prosecution but are limited to two terms in office. With the end of
his second term looming in April 2007, Ibori was worried the EFCC were
planning to prosecute him, Ribadu said.
"He was very desperate to terminate the investigation," he told the court.
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS
In late April 2007, a meeting was arranged between the two men at a
"neutral place", the house of Andy Uba, a close associate of outgoing
President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Ibori arrived at the house with several members of his staff and a
very large black sack containing $15 million in cash. Ribadu said he
watched as two of Ibori's men lifted the heavy sack and handed it over
to his own EFCC staff. "It was a bag that an individual could not
carry alone," he said.
The EFCC men drove the bag to the central bank where the money was
counted and boxed into smaller containers. The court was shown
photographs of the boxes of cash.
"I have given you money Nuhu, just give me my clearance," Ribadu
quoted Ibori as telling him after those events.
Instead, the EFCC continued to investigate Ibori's affairs and had him
arrested on corruption charges on December 12, 2007.
But Ribadu said the climate had changed since Obasanjo had stepped
down and President Umaru Yar'Adua had been sworn in. Ribadu said Ibori
was close to Yar'Adua, and the new attorney general Michael Aondoakaa
sought to neuter the EFCC.
On December 27, just 15 days after Ibori's arrest, Ribadu was sacked
as chairman of the EFCC. Efforts to prosecute Ibori in Nigeria
foundered, and he was eventually prosecuted in Britain because he had
laundered some of his millions there.
After his removal as EFCC chairman, Ribadu told the court he survived
two separate assassination attempts including one during which three
shots were fired at his car.
After the second attempt, he fled Nigeria by what he described as the
"bush path", first by motorcycle taxi across the border to Benin, then
by an Air France flight to Paris and then to Britain where he was
given refuge at an Oxford college.
Ribadu remained in exile until after the death of Yar'Adua in May
2010. He told the court that under new President Goodluck Jonathan,
the climate changed again and he returned home.
It was also that year that Ibori's luck turned. He was arrested in
Dubai on a British warrant and extradited to London a year later. He
is now serving his term at Long Lartin maximum security prison in
central England.