Yar’Adua asked Ibori to turn himself in, says Saraki

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15 March 2011

Yar’Adua asked Ibori to turn himself in, says Saraki

Disturbed by the waning bilateral relations between Nigeria and the US government over the perceived lack of vigour in the anti-corruption fight, late President Umaru Yar’Adua asked James Ibori, the corrupt former governor of Delta State, to turn himself in to the British Metropolitan Police.

According to a U.S. diplomatic cable, made available to NEXT, Bukola Saraki, Kwara State governor, a close friend of Mr. Ibori and confidant of Mr. Yar’Adua, said this in a chat with former US ambassador to Nigeria, Robin Sanders.

“The president is not in a political position to ban Ibori from some limited access to him. The Ibori situation is a problem for the president and he knows it, and is doing his best to convince Ibori to hand himself over to the British authorities so that the country can move on,” Mr. Saraki told the US ambassador.

Mr. Yar’Adua found himself in a fix. On the one hand, the US and other international partners were mounting pressure on him to strengthen the fight against corruption, demanding action on particularly high profile cases. On the other hand, Mr. Ibori, who had a pending case brought against him by the former leadership of the EFCC, had emerged as Mr. Yar’Adua’s chief financier in the 2007 presidential elections and one of the most powerful figures in the administration.