Celebrating Ibori is a Demonstartion that Crime is a Cultural Act in Delta - Human Rights

Some human rights organisations in the country have condemned the wild jubilation on the streets of Delta State on Wednesday following the news that a former Governor of the State, James Ibori, who was convicted in the United Kingdom for looting the treasury of the state, had been freed according to the Punch.

 

The Executive Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Mr. Debo Adeniran, said the jubilations among the people of Delta State demonstrated that stealing or fraud is a tradition among them and they did not see anything wrong about it because it was normal to them.

 

Adeniram said, “It is a demonstration that crime is a cultural act in that community; it shows that anything that has to do with stealing or theft doesn’t mean a disgraceful act to them; it is a welcome cultural act to them and it has become their tradition. That is what they have demonstrated; that theft is their cultural way of life. In other decent communities, stealing and theft and any other form of larceny is a condemnable act, a shameful act that nobody wants to identify with.

 

“In some decent communities if someone is identified as a thief, he would be ostracised even in his immediate family because they would see him as a stigma to them and unless he publicly repents and everybody can see that he has shown adequate signs of remorse and soberness he would not be accepted. What I see that Ibori has become is a king in a community of thieves.”

 

Also, the Chairman, Civil Society Network Against Corruption, Mr. Olanrewaju Suraj, described the response of the Delta people as unfortunate and a demonstration of the low level of exposure among the people.

 

Suraj said, “That response is rather unfortunate and it was unanimous in the South-South.

 

“The majority of the people there don’t see their so-called own people as the enemies of the progress of the region.

 

“This was not about a Nigerian court convicting Ibori that you can say the trial was politically motivated. He was convicted in the international jurisdiction of stealing the resources of the people of Delta State and Deltans are now celebrating his release.

 

“It shows you the level of exposure of the people that are there. The most unfortunate part is that subsequent governors after Ibori have failed to make any positive impact in the lives of the people.

 

“The people have not really seen a government taking due responsibility for uplifting the standard of the lives of the people beyond the token that the likes of Ibori would hand out to them in terms of gratification or monetary gains.

 

“If there had been a government to show what real governance is really about, they would have been able to distinguish between real governance and personal gratification.”

 

The Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Organisation, Ibuchukwu Ezike, said the response of the people was not surprising as Nigerians were known to celebrate even the most shameful things.

 

Also, a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Wahab Shittu, said, “While the rest of the country see him (Ibori) as somebody who has looted the treasury, his people continue to worship him as a hero and that tells you something, that there is a distinction between corruption and the politics of corruption and for us who are committed to the fight against corruption, what is playing out can be regarded as an international shame or embarrassment.

 

And that is why there are so many dynamics about the elements of corruption, in terms of the contradictions that you see.”