FORMER Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori, was back in the Kaduna Prison yesterday, just 24 hours after he was taken from the prison to Abuja.
His return to the prison came ahead of the resumption, today, of hearing of his bail application at the Federal High Court, Kaduna.
The court ordered he be remanded in prison on December 17, 2007 following his arraignment for corruption and money laundering.
But while he was flown to Abuja on Wednesday in a police helicopter, he returned in a car.
The authorities of the National Hospital, Abuja where Chief Ibori was taken to said the former governor was fit to face trial and that he was brought in from Kaduna on the recommendation of his personal doctor to complete a rudimentary heart check.
Five vehicles belonging to the Nigerian Prisons Service, Prisons officials and heavily armed Mobile Policemen attached to MOPOL 45, Abuja, escorted the former governor to Kaduna .
Signs that he might be moved from the National Hospital emerged as early as 9.00 a.m. yesterday when heavily armed policemen mounted security at the two gates of the hospital. They searched all vehicles going in and out of the hospital premises and asked what everybody going in was there for.
The screening was on until a directive came for them to move Ibori back to Kaduna.
His bail application is expected to be heard today by Justice Mohammed Lawal Shuaibu.
An aide to the former governor told Vanguard that Ibori was taken to the hospital for medical test, and that �he is not critically ill� as being speculated.
�Ibori is not very sick. In fact, he did not even want to be taken to the National Hospital, Abuja. His condition is stable. His blood pressure is high and this is to be expected in his situation.
�For somebody who was governor for eight years and as free as air, his blood pressure was expected to rise because he has never been confined to a place like this in his life,� the aide said.
The former governor is facing a 129-count charge of money laundering and stealing totalling over N9 billion.
Ibori fit to stand trial �Hospital’s CMD
The Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital, Dr. Olusegun Ajuwon, told journalists yesterday that Chief Ibori was brought in from Kaduna on the recommendation of his personal doctor to complete a rudimentary heart check.
His words: �He was seen by his doctor in Kaduna a cardiologist who required some information that was not available, so he referred him to the national hospital. Our consultant saw him from yesterday (Wednesday) to today (yesterday) just to make sure that he is fit and he said he is fit enough to face trial.�
The CMD said Ibori�s health would pose no threat to the continuation of the trial, as his presence in the hospital was not for any serious ailment as widely reported.
�When I saw him, he was in high spirit. He is willing to face trial. Health wise, I do not expect anything untoward to happen during trial,� he said.
Chief Ibori was flown in from Kaduna on Wednesday and was discharged from the hospital at about 11.30 a.m. after he was certified okay.