James Ibori releases statement - "My Lekki house was never a secret"

Two days after a spokesman for the EFCC said they discovered a 'secret mansion' belonging to Ibori located somewhere in Lekki (see story HERE), James Ibori' condemned the claims. He released a statement yesterday through his media assistant, Tony Eluemunor, saying the house was never a secret as it was listed down in Asset declaration forms he filled in 1999, 2003 and 2007.

The statement reads: 

"Despite EFCC’s insinuations to the contrary, the Alpha Beach Road house was built as far back as 1994, and so could not have, by any leap of the imagination, been built with proceeds, corrupt or not corrupt, from my office as State Governor because I began to live in that house five good years before I was voted into office”.

"Also, if the stories published about the house were actually based on EFCC’s statement, it means that the EFCC has accepted that Ibori was actually enormously rich at least half a decade before he became Governor of Delta State- after all, EFCC and the media called the house a “mansion”. 

See the rest after the cut...

"So, perhaps trying to hide this fact that Ibori was a man of means before he became governor, the EFCC and their agents are using all infernal tricks to cast doubts about when Ibori actually built that house.

"For the records, Chief Ibori reiterates that the house was not only built in 1994 before he became governor, it has featured in his asset declarations.

"Also, Chief Ibori has been cooperating fully with the Crown Prosecution since the preliminary stages of the confiscation process began, in line with the United Kingdom Criminal Justice Act (CJA) of 1988, so he does not see why the house has become an issue – especially as Nigeria has surrendered her jurisdictional sovereignty to Britain," the statement said.