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There are strong indications that the noose is tightening on Chief James Ibori, former Governor of Delta State and his ring of associates’ looters in the on-going Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s investigations. Some personal aides who assisted him to extensively pilfer money and properties belonging to Delta State are beginning to trade blames as to the roles played in assisting Chief Ibori to loot and launder several Billions of naira.

According to a copy of an email which exchanged between a personal aide to Chief Ibori and her sister, there is a shocking exposure of the role being played by some officials of Citizens Bank, Nigeria to assist the embattled Governor in destroying bank statements and related notes that could incriminate him in the investigation being carried out by the EFCC.

Below is the copy of the said electronic mail addressed to Bimpe Pogoson (nee Faloye) at bpogoson@yahoo.co.uk on Wednesday, 13 July 2005 from "Tinuola Faloye" <tinuolafaloye@hotmail.com> reads:

I have completed the task and will mail the statements and retirements to you. The only thing delaying is the Citizens (meaning "Citizens Bank Nigeria) statements for the closed accounts. They have been reluctant to re-print them for me as this will require recalling the files we told them to get rid back unto the system. I could explain this to the Chairman if you want me to. However you could call Mrs. Ikpo Phillips of Citizens Bank on their landline 01-2610607 or 08023850372, in all fairness, they have a point. The things you asked for will be sent with or without Citizen Statements first thing on Thursday morning.

On the EFCC issues, i had a meeting with Chiedu (Ibie) and Davidson and discussed with Mr. David (Edevbie, Delta State Commissioner of Finance) and Oga (James Ibori) extensively yesterday. Also Mr. Fowora (Segun Fowora of PRIMI LLC, Florida USA) called to give me some tips on dealing with the situation. At this point, we have all concluded that there is no point trying to hide a connection between the companies as these people already has most of the info. Some people seem to be of the impression that we were simply to careless (strange how people shift the blame when push comes to shove). The major problems we have (in my opinion), from Oga/efcc perspective) are:

In Charter House and KOLN statements, there were some cash payments to Banke, Koln, Alcac, Harefe, Emma Okafor and Bola.
Oga's ECONET bills were paid with Koln cheques establishing a link with Oga
Payents were made from Charter House to Alcac. So if Alcac is called up, Alcac Platinum will be called up. If so, Bayprojects will be called up too.
If they go looking for Koln and Harefe in NNB, this will lead to even more accounts be called up.
There was a deposit into NNB Koln by Solo Odule sometime in July last year (I hear this is the kind of thing they are looking for).
The fact that Chiedu and I are signatories to all these accounts just complicates things.
Davidson says there is no use trying to sort out Charter House from Abuja as they already have the incorporation documents /information. They say it's the first thing they do.
Also perhaps we should have restricted ourselves to paying just cash. The problem is all the people we have paid with cheques- Silhouette, Paulina, e.t.c. It might be a problem if they call up these accounts as the bills for Silhouette; Paulins are for Oga or places like Oghara (Ibori's Country Home) and other private locations. We don't know how these people will fare under pressure and I don't want to complicate things by briefing everyone.

I was in NNB for a few hours yesterday and I went back there today. Davidson and Chiedu think there is no point but I was able to get some things deleted from the statements and I will continue trying. Davidson says I should isolate and show him the areas I want him to please get out of the statements of Alcac before they ask for it. I will sort that out tomorrow. I am really not too impressed with attitude all of a sudden. While I have been busy trying to explain things away, they say my explanation should be that I was not the one who did it or was not around when it transpired. That bothers me.

I am meeting Oga with all the bank statements tomorrow evening (Harefe, Alcac, Koln, Charter House and if he insists-Bayprojects) I will let you know how it goes.

ALCAC mentioned in the email is a company registered in Nigeria with Registration Number RC 380602. It claims to be an Exercise Book manufacturer with office at 3A McPherson Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Harefe, on the other hand, a printing press is the sister company of Daily Independent Newspapers owned by James Ibori.