Armed militants have prevented agents of Nigeria’s anti-graft agency from arresting an ex-governor suspected of siphoning off millions of dollars of state assets, the agency head has said.
Armed militants and youths in Oghara have in the past days prevented security agents from arresting James Ibori, ex-governor of oil-rich Delta State, to answer charges of corruption against him, officials and media reports have said.
He has been in hiding in his Ogahara hometown since an arrest warrant was issued against him last week.
“We went there with the assistance of the police, the militants chased us out. Nobody should be above the laws of the land,” Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chief Farida Waziri said Wednesday.
“If you feel your hands are clean, you should come out and go to the court and clear your name. But when you make it impossible and you say you are above the law… It is a pity,” she said in an official statement.
“James Ibori is wanted by the commission for interrogation,” the statement said. “We are going back to the drawing board with the IGP (Inspector General of Police), then we decide what next to do.”
Ibori, who ruled the southern state from 1999 to 2007, is charged with official corruption and money laundering while he was state governor.
He is accused of diverting 520 million units of Delta State government shares in the Oceanic Bank to secure a loan from the Intercontinental Bank worth 44 billion naira (290 million dollars, 213 million euros), EFCC spokesman Femi Babafemi had told AFP.
Ibori then instructed Intercontinental Bank “to sell the shares to offset a loan obtained by Ascot”, referring to a company owned by the former governor, Babafemi added.
Last December, the federal high court in the state capital Asaba acquitted Ibori of a 170-count corruption charge.
But critics said the ruling was due to his closeness to ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua whose election he helped finance in April 2007.
The ex-governor has also faced corruption charges in Britain after the discovery of assets suspected to have been acquired with stolen money.