Peter Odili, former Gov. of Rivers States 'Escapes' Arrest-Reuters.

Last View on Wed 5th March, 2008
Last Modified on Wed 05th March, 2008 12:16:30 pm
Author: Posted by Admin Sahara

By Austin Ekeinde

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - The former governor of Nigeria's richest oil state secured a "perpetual injunction" against arrest by the anti-corruption police in a court ruling on Wednesday.

Peter Odili governed Rivers state, which has an annual budget well over $1 billion and where most of the estimated 5 million residents have no power, clean water or access to functional schools and clinics, for eight years until May 2007.

The anti-corruption Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has charged eight out of 36 state governors from the previous administration with corruption since they stepped down in May, losing their immunity from prosecution.

Its fight against corruption in what has long been seen as one of the world's most tainted countries has won praise from donors and anti-graft activists. Investors are also watching for signs of how seriously Nigeria tackles corruption.

Odili's wealth and status make him a bigger target than any of the other eight governors for the EFCC.

The anti-corruption body has been investigating his finances and has said he is suspected of embezzlement, money laundering and gross abuse of office. It has been trying to arrest him.

Just before he stepped down last year, he obtained a court injunction preventing the EFCC from probing the Rivers state government finances. The EFCC immediately appealed against the injunction and that appeal has yet to be decided.

The EFCC tried to continue its investigation of Odili regardless of the injunction, arguing that his name did not appear in the document, but Odili has been fighting back in a federal high court in the Rivers state capital Port Harcourt.

"The subsisting judgment of March 2007 by this court is binding on all parties," said Judge Ibrahim Buba in a ruling delivered on Wednesday.

"Therefore there is a perpetual injunction restraining the EFCC from arresting, detaining and arraigning Odili on the basis of his tenure as governor based on the purported investigation," he said. Odili was not present in court.

"UNACCEPTABLE"

The EFCC's lawyer, James Binang, said the decision was "unacceptable" and the force would immediately appeal.

Nigerian ex-governors have sought such injunctions and some have obtained them, although in other cases the EFCC has prevailed in the end.

Anti-graft activists say such injunctions are a sign of corruption and incompetence in the courts and they have no basis in Nigerian law.

Nigeria achieved a ranking of 147 of 179 countries on the Transparency International corruption perception index in 2007 compared to last place of the 90 countries covered in 2000.

Odili's record in Rivers is one of the most controversial of all the governors whose terms ended last May.

During his eight years in power, the state saw a surge in attacks on the oil industry by militants demanding greater benefits, kidnappings by ransom seekers, political violence and deadly robberies by gangs armed with AK-47 rifles.

The collapse of government in Rivers was documented in detail in a Human Rights Watch report published last year, which said there was nothing to show for billions of petrodollars that had landed in government coffers thanks to the oil price boom.

Human Rights Watch obtained a copy of the 2006 state budget. It contained a $65,000 per day travel allowance for the governor's office alone.

SOURCE: http://www.saharareporters.com/www/news/detail/?id=542

'Landers, what do you make of this?

Well, what are we to say? The Judges's name should be published so that we can find out which Judges in our judicial system are corrupt - because Odili obviously paid this fool. Odili is a billionaire (in dollars) - Common Odili who didn't have two kobo before he became Governor. The same Odili who was vice-governor in the early 90's. God punish him!

Ibime:

Well, what are we to say? The Judges's name should be published so that we can find out which Judges in our judicial system are corrupt - because Odili obviously paid this fool. Odili is a billionaire (in dollars) - Common Odili who didn't have two kobo before he became Governor. The same Odili who was vice-governor in the early 90's. God punish him!

I have decided to exclude my self from the conservative ,ignoble and corrupt trend of Nigerian judges,especially after the fallout of the Atiku/ Buhari/Yaradua tribunal verdict.
Yaradull wants to elevate the tribunal judge to the status of supreme court

I am hoping a higher court would over rule this decision and fast too. But what else could have been expected when the court that gave this order was based in Port Harcourt? And what else can you expect from a common criminal? He is a desperate man, and what even stinks more is the fact that he has also stopped EFCC from publishing their finds on him. Well, so what is ICPC waiting for? If people were serious about catching this criminal he would have been caught, so all i can say is it looks like it is business as usual as i have stated previously. I will desperately liked to be proved wrong.

Legal luminaries please come to my aid here

does it mean that this man's administration will perpertually not be investigated (assuming efcc did not appeal)

does the court of law have the right to ask a body duliy constituted by law not to do its constitutionally obliged functions

is this a ploy by the Judicairy to make more money for their NBA colleauge knowing well that EFCC will appeal

is this a  way of delaying justice for

if odili is clean (as he claims), why is he afraid of investigation (not arrest yet ooo)

ATIMES I GET CONFUSED BY THE NIGERIAN LEGAL SYSTEM OR MAY BE THE JUDGES THEMSELVES

ONE DAY A JUDGE WILL GIVE PERPETUAL INJUCTION TO NAFDAC RESTRAINING THEM FROM CHECKING FOR FAKE DRUGS  

Our system is so primitive ,hence our judges and consequently their judgement.
The same was said during the now infamous yaradull's tribunal victory
The system is too archai
I am not much of a legal practioner.One thing I know is ,something is wrong somewhere

Do people now see one of the reasons for having credible elections? If we had a president and governors that were elected by the masses, they won't feel they owe this criminals anything and all this shielding and protection of certain people may have been reduced. We are about to see how serious the EFCC, and ICPC and all the other agencies are about fighting corruption. Prisons in Nigeria are full of people who have not properly been prosecuted and people who stole to feed themselves, yet these criminals and touts and public agberos are walking free? Credible elections are so important. Maybe when next we are given a chance to stand for justice and truth then less people will be willing to hide under mere rhetoric or counterprogressive specially made Nigerian slogans like "National Interest" and "for peace".

i dont have confident in our
legal system,

Why are we so quick to blame all of the sour decisions some judges have made on our legal system? Unless some of us are well schooled on the law, why are we so quick to say it is because our laws are at fault and are primitive? Yes a lot of work needs to be done in that department but if we are to be honest and truthful it is simply individuals looking out for their own interest. The Judge is supposed to interprete the law. If he decided to ignore obvious common sense and bury his sense of justice in order to benefit himself or some other interest then is the main problem the laws or the judges?

Its for temporal cos such thing equally happened with James Ibori and Lucky Igbinedion, but they were later arrested and arraigned in a law court. Peter Odili will surely be tried as it is only a matter of time.

It is simple!
If EFCC is not ready to arrest or probe OBJ, there will be few folks that will not be touched, and I think Odili is one of them.

The coast must first be cleared before arresting folks like Odili. Do not waste your time; for now, it isn't going to happen.

@Econium, James Ibori and Lucky Igbinedion? I will reserve a comment till we here the verdict on that case. Was Alams case justice though? If all they do is end up "settling" the matter out of the court then it is nothing but a photo op and they have just come in front of us to act film. As far as i can see, when you really think about it, none of the ex-governors or ministers have been properly dealt with by the EFCC. They have been trying to pull scape goat tactics so the perceived injustices can be settled, however all we end up hearing is that a fraction was paid back and in the case of Alams, he was released at the end because he apperently spent 2 years already in a supposed "jail". I will hold my praise of the EFCC till they really do deal with these criminals.

Sky Blue:

Do people now see one of the reasons for having credible elections? If we had a president and governors that were elected by the masses, they won't feel they owe this criminals anything and all this shielding and protection of certain people may have been reduced. We are about to see how serious the EFCC, and ICPC and all the other agencies are about fighting corruption. Prisons in Nigeria are full of people who have not properly being prosecuted and people who stole to feed themselves, yet these criminals and touts and public agberos are walking free? Credible elections are so important. Maybe when next we are given a chance to stand for justice and truth then less people will be willing to hide under mere rhetoric or counterprogressive specially made Nigerian slogans like "National Interest" and "for peace".

I second that. Nothing will ever work consistently unless standards are set and kept to no matter what, especially when it involves governance. One of the major problems we have in Nigeria is that we keep shifting standards to accommodate "national interest" and "peace".

that guy has nine lives

Nothing never changes in Naija, the corrupt guys will always walk free and the rest of us will just have to moan about it.

He can run for now but we will catch him in the end no matter how many judge he bribe.

I still can't figure out how Odili got a court to rule against him or the Rivers state govt from
being investigated.

I am not a lawyer or an expert on the law but it just amazes me
how a court can grant this kind of injunction. I am really short of words.

Texcee, all the judges have been bribed in this situation. This is nothing new in the legal system in Niigeria, money talks.

Selected justice is the name of the game.
Odili in the first place was asked during the pdp presidential primaries to drop his presidential ambition or face the EFCC and if he could drop the ambition then to get away from efcc so why is efcc after him again?
marwa did drop his presidential ambition and was let go by efcc and was even decorated with ambassadorial appointment.
orji uzo kalu refused to drop his ambition and was among the first to be arrested after the fall out with alams.
someone rightly mentioned here that rivers is one of the richest, yes and they have an anual budget of 1 billion and above accepted, but how rich is nigeria? how much is our annual budget? and how far has efcc gone in the probing of the activities of the past eight( years at the federal levels?
which injuction stopped efcc from probing obj and co? how far did the so called gazzeted case of atiku go? what happened to the people atiku implicated?
the govs are fools otherwise, the past govs shld have formed an association to resist arrest as long as the federal criminals are above the law, the govs shld learn to be above the law too.who made yar adua and Goodluck (his vice) saints among the former governors?
the govs can decide to fight against the federal gov and by so doing, every state will become independent.
oil wells belonging to abia state were given aways by obj bcs of his hatred for kalu but yar adua have finally returned them but nothing happened to the man who committed the crime.
a 60 year jail term was given a man for defrauding a switz woman and tafa balogun was given six months for defrauding nigeria and nigerians, two years to alams for defrauding bayasa people.
andy uba was convicted in the usa for the same money laundering and this time via nigeria's presidential jet, yet he was allowed to context election and efcc tagged that a civil case-shame.
odili shld not only go for court injuction, he shld fortify himself with military/militants bcs nigeria is not yet ready.
if the likes of obj, tony annenih, atiku, andy uba, chris uba, adedibu, bode george, david mark, mrs etteh and their likes are found in the good books of any authority in nigeria, i ask that every man even high way robbers be free.
if nothing represents corruption in nigeria, all the governors that served during obj's two tenures are all involved including Jonathan Goodluck and yar adua.
yar adua rtecieved a house gift from obj while he(obj) was president which he later surrendered when he(yar adua) became president. yar adua shld be able to tell nigerians how and why he was given a house that belonged to the federal gov and why some of the other governors did not get.
how come important positions were occupied by criminals and most of whom were forced out of office with no punishment eg, mrs etteh - contract scam, david mark - electorial fraud. law makers turn law breakers yet we have efcc.

I understand the arguements for selected justice, but nevertheless, why are we trying to use it to defend common crooks? If Odili was clean then he would have nothing to answer and it is as simple as that. If selective justice would mean only governors from a specific region are targeted by EFCC what would that mean for the people of that region? It might mean that they get governors who are so affraid of being a victim of this "selective justice" that they do not steal from their people. If this "selective justice" is going to reduce looting in those places then i fail to see why people from such places will see reasonability in crying foul. If other people don't want to hold their own leaders accountable and they are fine with the looting and they don't want the "selective justice" well, that is up to them and is to their own detriment. If "selective justice" is going to get Odili locked up then so be it.

What do you mean by selective justice?? This is outrageous. Why is the EFCC getting the judges to decide who it can go after and who it can not?? Is that even legal?? It should be allowed to go after anyone with questionable history regardless of statuss or post. This is ridiculous.

Well, what are we to say? The Judges's name should be published so that we can find out which Judges in our judicial system are corrupt - because Odili obviously paid this fool. Odili is a billionaire (in dollars) - Common Odili who didn't have two kobo before he became Governor. The same Odili who was vice-governor in the early 90's. God punish him!

Just like Sam Egwu who's now a billionaire in dollars that didn't have anything before he became governor of ebonyi state. His trial was also mired in corruption, and he's still rich from ebonyi's loot and can't be touched. Odili's case will never go anywhere.

This same bandit Odili that raped RV blue-black, made off with tons of money through phoney projects like the Gas turbine project; turned RV into a cult haven where young men shoot with reckless abandon and finally he has succeeded in stopping an investigation on him. THIS IS LUDICROUS!

If he has stopped the EFCC from prosecuting him, the EFCC should give the police circumstantial evidence indicting him and they should then proceed to do the investigation themselves afterall no body is immune from investigation by the police.

OR maybe some people are . . ._{only in NIGERIA}