THE KAYODE AJULO INTERVIEW; CHIEF JAMES IBORI IS A SERIAL CONVICT.

-KAYODE AJULO, LEAD COUNSEL TO DELTA ELDERS VS. JAMES IBORI

Barrister Kayode Ajulo knows a lot more than most Nigerians about Chief James Ibori, ex governor of Delta State and for good reasons. He has spent quality time tracking his criminal proclivities all over the world as lead counsel to a concerned group of delta elders who are collectively prosecuting James Ibori for fraud in his eight years of captaining the ship of state. In his opinion he has no business being elected Governor because of his criminal tendencies.

It was based on the petition by his clients that James Ibori was declared wanted by the EFCC. We sought him for an interview to talk about Ibori and the allegation that the suit has political considerations. We also had a rare privilege of having him talk about his private life and rumours that he has a senatorial ambition which though he did not out rightly deny, kept hanging. A way of saying, ‘let’s see how it goes.’

He is presently a supporter of the Dr. Olusegun Mimiko administration in Ondo state. He has many nice words about the good job he is doing, and he prays and hopes he wont disappoint him tomorrow otherwise he will be the first to shout for his head.

Kayode Ajulo’s life is like a story book filled with childhood dreams and heroes. Most of those dreams happily have come true, with a few thrown unto his laps by providence. At 36, he has achieved more than men twice his age. To him it’s no big deal; he just shrugs off and throws in a biblical quote which says when a man is diligent in his work, he will sit before kings and princes.
Interview by ; Al Humphrey Onyanabo

YOU ARE NOT A VERY POPULAR PERSON, BUT THOSE WHO KNOW YOU DESCRIBE YOU AS A MYSTERY MAN WHO WALKS IN THE CORRIDORS OF POWER AND AMONGST THE POWERFUL. HOW DO YOU DO IT?

By my training as a lawyer, the issue of being a popular person should not be an issue, as efforts gear toward being a popular person may be construed to be an advertisement; the noble profession forbids this, with severe sanctions. Personally as a lawyer, I did not need to be popular in your context, I am supposed to be sober and serious at all times, and every lawyer’s popularity ought to be within the confines of the courts where he practises by his erudition and grasp of law.

Legally speaking, as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, commissioned and whose name is on the Roll of Legal Practitioners pursuant to the provisions of the Laws of Federation of Nigeria, every lawyer is well known. That is why judicial notice of every lawyer is taken.

On your second line of the question, how did I do it to be among powerful people and in corridors of power? While I have reservation on the nomenclature; “powerful” and “corridor of power”, the secret to achieve this feat is in the Holy Bible but it is not a pastor that showed me this, but Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, when I had a stint at his Abuja law office as a pupil lawyer.

The secret is just a sentence but very spiritual, great and potent one; “seeth thou a man diligent in his work, he will stand before kings and not mean men,” if you’re good, industrious, detailed, steadfast, energetic and focused in your profession, our modern day kings - the rich, mighty and those in corridors of power - would seek for your service.


WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WTH DR. OLUSEGUN MIMIKO?

I am from Ondo State and Dr. Olusegun Mimiko is the governor of the state. I am exceedingly proud to tell you that he is the governor of my own state. I said this with every sense of responsibility, I said this having taken into consideration my background, what the Ondo State stands for, what the people of the state are known for, their attitudes, their unique way of politicking. Remember, Ondo State is the cradle of progressivism in Nigeria, yes, the home of progressives, Afenifere, hotbed of intellectuals. Recall the roles late Olowo of Owo, Oba Olateru-Olagbegi I and the progenitor of Free Education in Nigeria and former governor of the state, Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, played in the formation of Action Group.

I am a student of history, don’t let us be deceived by what the Egbas and Ijebus have been peddling, laying claim to the fact that Chief Obafemi Awolowo is the eldorado of the progressives, while I recognize the great work of the late sage, Awolowo only emerged through the synergy of great personalities of Ondo State. Action Group was not only formed in Owo, Ondo State but in the Chamber of Olowo’s palace.

Chief Reuben Fashoranti, the Afenifere kingpin is also from Ondo State, Chief Olu Yemi Falae, one time presidential candidate, Chief Shehinde Arogbofa, Comrade Baba Omojola, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, Gani Adams, they are irrepressible progressives. Remember also that the most successful legal practitioner, the defender of the people and greatest crusader in Nigeria that I know, Chief Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi was a proud citizen of the state.

I mentioned these personalities for you to appreciate the fundamentals of the state, our industries, Ondo people are independent, courageous, resolute, intelligent and principled and when you have a governor that is an embodiment of these attributes as well as reinforces the people’s aspiration, we will continue to be proud of that person.

This is a governor that can be said that his ascendancy is so bona fide, that after the final judgment of the Court of Appeal in Benin even his so called opposition never raised any contrary view and have been congratulating him and lobbying him till today, I am not a politician in Nigeria context but have my ears to the ground and we have contacts everywhere.

Dr. Olusegun Mimiko is yet to disappoint like others as we pray that he never does such a thing. He is amiable, feels and goes with the pulse of the people; he chose the right party, Labour party, which has now turned to be fastest growing party in Nigeria.

According to John Maxwell, one of the qualities of a good leader is the ability to inspire his people, Dr. Mimiko inspires the people of Ondo State, many of my friends who are not Yorubas have been asking me what is the meaning of “Takun Takun”, it took some while before I understood that they are referring to Mimiko’s new battle cry for productivity in Ondo State. “Ise takun takun, ibukun repete,” which literarily mean that bountiful harvest can only be achieved through true hard work.

Tell me what a better way to inspire your people than with physical result that can be seen and even touched.

Unfortunately, it not fashionable for me to praise any one, but if you find someone doing something great, please, let us give it to such a person! We praise our learned governor of Lagos, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, not because he speaks good English, neither because of his gorgeous wife, but because even the blind can see that the present Lagos State of Fashola is better than before, Dr. Aliyu Banbangida of Niger State is dear to the people, not because of his self styled title; Servant Leader but because he sees to the needs of his people, same too goes for Olusegun Rahman Mimiko, not because he is a Christian but bears a Moslem name, but because he came with innovative ideas. Recall the full payment of the pension arears in Ondo State, before several died while queuing to be paid for the monthly stipends called pension. That is now the thing of the past, every home in Nigeria at least has one or two pensioners, just imagine smiles in every home, some of my friends in Diaspora even called me that the pressure of asking for transfer of pounds and dollars have reduced in Ondo State. Please, you are free to make your independent assessment of this fact, visit Western Union office.

Please, go to Ondo State and ask about the first specialist hospital only for Mother and Child brought about by the governor, ask them the meaning of Abiye Project. Find out the Volunteer Scheme that is fashioned out to enable the unemployed in the state to receive a little stipend of about N10, 000 as social benefit, about 4, 000 of them have graduated from being beneficiaries to full employed citizens in the state, recently over 120 of the beneficiaries were employed by the government as Traffic Wardens.

Please, come to Ondo State to find out, the public model school scheme that no private school despite the exorbitant fees paid can rival? Find out the new scheme of ensuring that the people of the state have access to lawyers with no cost to them. My state is turning to the state of my dream; egalitarian society, for the past six years I formed Egalitarian Mission, Africa and I have been campaigning to entrench egalitarian values in Africa, if I am seeing a state turning to the state of my dream, the governor that’s making the dream possible must be my friend.

I am not a relation of Dr. Mimiko, I am not a member of his party; I am not a contractor but a lawyer, practising in accordance to the dictate of my professional rules and ethics.

You see, after the years of locust, we are in dire need of good leadership and if we find one in Dr. Mimiko we must encourage him.

IS IT TRUE THAT YOU HAVE SENATORIAL AMBITION IN 2011?

Haba! Who is saying that? I am sure it must be a joke.

Let me recall an event, recently during my last birthday anniversary, to mark the day which turned out to be Saturday I called some associates and other respected member of the society together for a talkshop on good leadership and in my opening address I posited that one of our problems is the recycling of old politicians that have nothing to offer, before the end of the occasion, one of the old politicians in our midst rose up to remind me that the reason for the talkshop in my anniversary and asked me to tell them my age. When I told them I am 36 they proceeded in unison to exclaim that I am qualified to be a senator in Nigeria and I should stop blaming old politicians as the young people of Nigeria that should be blamed for failing to come out to aspire to serve our people.

You see, having senatorial ambition should not be the focal discourse but the flair and passion to serve the people irrespective of the capacity and position.


WHAT’S THE PROGRESS REPORT ON YOUR CASE AGAINST MR JAMES IBORI INSTITUITED BY SOME ELDERS IN DELTA STATE

The entire report on my clients, Delta State Elders, Leaders and Stakeholders Forum’s case against their son, Chief James Ibori is in public domain and I don’t think it will be modest on my part to add or remove from what now constitutes an open secret and very well known to the whole world.

The allegations of my clients against Ibori is monumental, its investigation traversed all the four corners of the World. I marvel and salute the courage of Chief E. K. Clark and other statesmen. It shows that all Nigerians are not corrupt, it shows that all Nigerians are not bad as many may be thinking. Nigerians abhor fraud, deceit and corruption, these bad qualities are not in our characters, we are God fearing people, it’s just that we still have some lousy Judas Iscariots among us.

There are lots of allegations against Ibori, he was a serial convict, even with his wife, but he went ahead to present himself to be elected as governor of a state contrary to the provisions of our sacred constitution. In a better clime his rights and privileges as a former governor would have been restrained while a declaration made that he was never a governor.

I say this with full understanding that if my clients are not justified, Chief James Ibori is at full liberty to bring a libel and other legal proceeding against them but good enough he acknowledges his convictions.

All what my clients were doing is to let us know that there is what is called accountability in Nigeria, it has no political colouration, did you do it or not? Their constitutional obligation as citizens is to provide the allegations with forensic and genuine facts and figures and same will be investigated and charged to court where probable.

Ibori was declared wanted based on my client’s petition to EFCC, it is a new allegation which came to full knowledge of Delta State Elders from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido’s comprehensive reports on the ailing banks wherein it was discovered that Oceanic Bank’s shares belonging to Delta State Government the under the leadership of James Ibori were used to secure a loan from Intercontinental Bank for a private company.

The EFCC has approached some of my clients like Chief E. K. Clark to write statements and others have done same, with invitation to Ibori to come to write his, then why is he hiding?

Let him come out of his hide out, it is only the guilty that is afraid.

He may be running but will never escape justice, nobody is persecuting Ibori. If EFCC tries that, my clients as his kinsmen will be the first to go to court on his behalf to protect his fundamental rights, I won’t even allow Ibori to be treated unjustly without the instrumentality of the law.

Please, recall that when Ibori was initially arrested at Abuja, we made a press release that Ibori’s fundamental rights must not be breached.

HOW DID YOU GET THAT BRIEF?

I got the brief the same way every lawyer gets brief, but I later understood that Chief E. K. Clark did his own research from many of his associates before contacting me.

Chief E. K. Clark is a lawyer, a very intelligent one that puts you on your toes every time; he used to regale me with his escapades in court rooms during his hey days.

He is very abreast with the practice and virtually knew all lawyers that’s why he is a leader, he booked an appointment with me and at the end of the day he informed me that I’ll be handling some briefs for his group.

Here, he made the offer and I accepted, with term and conditions of course.

HOW CAN CITIZENS CHECKMATE THE CORRUPT TENDENCIES OF ELECTED RULERS?

Through transparency and full activation of instrumentality of our law!

Ordinarily, it is against my nature to elaborate on theories except when it is necessary. I have observed that not more than one million out of 150 million Nigerians have seen a copy of the Nigerian Constitution. I further observed that even less than 500, 000 out of one million have ever bothered themselves to read through the constitution and even when read through less than 100, 000 Nigerians have the requisite knowledge to understand the spirit of individual letters of the constitution.

Even among learned men, lawyers, I have observed they have wittingly and unwittingly not understood the Constitution.

I have inquired into why our leaders find it difficult to explore the sacred routes laid down by these provisions to salvage the country form corrupt tendencies of our leaders.

I have listened to some arguments that without the passing of the Freedom of Information Bill into Law by the National Assembly, our much-cherished press would not be capacitated to have sufficient access to some information thereby granting the much cherished transparency.

I have good news for you.

I have had the privilege of going through the so-called FOI Bill. While I commend the effort of the sponsor of the bill I would not mince words to quickly express my opinion that several of our laws have covered virtually all what the FOI bill purports to cover. As I saw a need to unify these laws, I have failed to see how non-passage of the FOI Bill as a clog in the wheel of the duties of the public including the press to checkmate the corrupt leaders in the society. Let me remind you of the provision of Section 22 of the Constitution which states thus:

The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people.

Bearing this in mind, it is fundamental that press can request for information or make inquiry into any events if need be.


DO YOU THINK ICPC AND EFCC ARE DOING ENOUGH TO FIGHT CORRUPTION AND DETER CROOKS IN GOVERNMENT?


They are not, the will power to fight corruption is not there, they are subsumed by the Nigerian factors; political permutations, lack of capital and human resources, processes of appointment, etc.

For result, anti-corruption agencies should be insulated from politics, even if the personnel should come from Congo, we don’t care, the basis is that Nigerians abhor these crimes and want results, nobody should be above the law, the very week Chief Bode George was convicted you needed to visit some government establishments, everybody sat up, how I wish we continue to have such convictions, there will be sanity in our polity, but these agencies are deliberately incompetent, investigations are done half-heartedly just for the purpose of grandstanding thereby turning some of our respected Senior Advocates to charge and bail lawyers.

Whereas financial crimes are the simplest crimes to investigate, it involves a lot of money that are not physical cash, which transaction could be easily traced.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE PATH OF ACTIVISM?

Every living thing is an activist, once there is life there must be a tendency to activate, it now depends on the degree or the intensity of one’s reaction to actions and developments around him.

Wittingly and unwittingly I found myself being called an activist, maybe because the way I reacted to some issues in our polity, I just can’t help myself from reacting in some ways with reason guided by the provisions of our law, conventions, practice, customs, protocols, etc.

I am sincerely influenced by the nature of my being and how I was nurtured from birth till date, my mother is a no-nonsense woman, very agile and well informed despite, she was an authority on Awolowo/Akintola crisis, my mother’s bookshop in Ilesha was well stocked with books written by Wole Soyinka, T.M. Aluko, Ngugi, Achebe, etc.

I knew about Karl Max, Steve Biko, Luther King and Mandela before I was 11 years old, I even won a poetry competition organized by a US based Luther King Foundation at Aquinas College, Akure in class 2, then we used to write letters to US for books and Bibles, now somebody told me what we were doing then was mini-yahoo-yahoo.

I am also an Anglican from birth, when I was young I looked forward to every Sunday to listen to our Bishop, Bishop Bolanle Gbonigi, he has a peculiar style of doing his critique, he fascinated me that I always prayed to be like him. When I won the Martins Luther King poetry award, Wole Soyinka same month won the Nobel prize and some few days after Dele Giwa was bombed. I was so devastated because it was from Dele Giwa’s article that I got the inspiration for my award winning poem. I became frustrated that as a teenager I could not do anything to avenge his murder. That was when Gani Fawehinmi stole my heart, he was a fighter, very fearless and articulated, there and then, I knew I have found the path to take.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACK GROUND, SCHOOLS ATTENDED, CHILDHOOD, GROWING UP YEARS, ETC

I was born in Ibadan into the family of Solomon and Christiana Ajulo, my father was a salesman at a prestigious bookshop company with offices all over the country. My mother trained as a tailor, that is, fashion designer but later ventured into selling of books and stationery, and she had bookshops in Ibadan, Ilesha and Akure then.

Because of my parents’ line of business I was exposed to books at early age, in fact, books happened to be what I could first recognize. As a toddler, I can’t really say I had toys, but books and books.

I started my primary education at St. James’s Anglican Primary School, Oke-Bola in Ibadan, I also schooled in Ilesha, I went to Aquinas College, Akure and left when I was 14 years after I sat and passed my GCE “O” Level Exams, I attended University of Jos and graduated with law degree in 1999, I then immediately proceeded to Nigerian Law School where I was called to Nigerian Bar in 2001. I have a Master degree in law and I am currently a law doctorate degree candidate.


WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO STUDY LAW?


As earlier mentioned, I was so consumed with Gani Fawehinmi style of advocacy, I also loved to read about one Chief in Benin in Tribune Newspaper then, Chief Nosa something, a Chief Priest of Benin, when I was schooling in Ilesha my headmistress, Mrs. Ogunmokun used to called me Kayode Esho, G.O.K Ajayi, SAN then was the hero of the 1983 electoral petition, I so much desired to be like them but late Kanmi Ishola-Oshobu, a fire-brand lawyer who I met at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja actually made me to study law while Brigadier Benjamin Adekunle, (Black Scorpion) and Prof. Abdulkadir (the then Executive Secretary of National University Commission ensured that I attended University of Jos.

WHY DO YOU CONDUCT YOUR BUSINESS MOST OF THE TIME FROM AIRPORTS?

I have only one business which is law practice, law is versatile, litigation is just what everybody identified me with, whereas, I majored in corporate and commercial practice, oil & gas, real estate and conveyance, arbitration and mediation, these aspects of law require that I travel here and there for meetings by air to meet up client demands and sometimes to save time some of these meetings were fixed at the airports particularly in Lagos where commuting by road is a serious issue.

HOW DO YOU COMBINE HUMAN RIGHTS WITH REPRESENTING HIGH NET WORTH CLIENTS?

I consider my engagements in human rights as part of my social responsibilities, representing high net worth clients funds my human rights engagements, most of human rights victims are indigent citizen, you cannot hardly come across a big man complaining that his human rights have been breach, Atiku’s case is just a few example of the rich also cry.

That’s why we set aside 15% of our firm income less tax to fund our human rights and promotion of egalitarian activities.

I have never request for grants from any quarter before, this is our own way to remain focus on our set goals.

WHATS YOUR LIFE’S GUIDING PRINCIPLE?
All life activities are gear toward achieving success, measurement of success for me is not the numbers of exotic cars, houses etc that one has, but the number of life one can touch in a positive way.

WILL YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS WEALTHY?

Wealthy? I can only be wealthy if that is what I set out to achieve in life, and mind you wealth is virtual but what sort of wealth, I am wealthy in terms of goodwill, in terms of accomplishment I derived upon completion of each project and brief I engaged in. However, I am not wealthy in terms of what is in my bank account or physical properties. I measure my wealth in terms of the number of people I have been a blessing to.

I am a product of benevolence from others, my fist reading glasses was procured for me by members of our church, and it is such a soothing relief to count the number of those I got frames and reading glasses for, nothing can be measured as ones wealth than the number of those that you bring smiles to their faces.


YOU ARE ALWAYS ON THE ROAD OR IN THE AIR; DO YOU HAVE TIME FOR SOCIALIZING?


There is no better way of socializing than what I am doing, tell me how many hours did a man need in attending a party? An hour is enough to greet people, socialize, network and hop to another event, averagely I received nothing less than ten invitations to party at weekends and the reason is that, the celebrants wanted me to come to his/her event, it is an honour for my company to be so desired but not that I get there and turn the place to my rally and sleep there, I visit those I am able to visit, give my hosts what I have for them if necessary and excuse myself to another engagements either social and business, after all I don’t smoke and don’t drink and I have enviable marital bliss.

ARE YOU MARRIED? ANY KIDS? HOW DO THEY COPE WITH YOUR LONG ABSENCE? HOW DO YOU BALANCE IT.?


Of course I am married that is why I am focused to do what I am doing, I have many children both natural and adopted, and how they cope with my long absence? No! not at all, interestingly for the past 7 years I have not being out of the country for more than 5 days, that’s why I found it difficult of going to the US, the trip is too long and several issues are begging attention here in Nigeria.

If my engagement requires that I must be away for more than a week my family always travel with me, I enjoy being with people, that’s why I have extra large family and two weeks ago I was a guest of a State governor for Easter break, I went with my wife, children and others, my host even marvelled that such a young man could have such big family, these to me is wealth.


DO YOU BELIEVE IN ZONING THE PRESIDENCY ON ETHNIC LINES?

I stand with the our constitutional provisions on this, anybody irrespective of the place, religion etc can be the President of Nigeria, ethnicity is one of our major problems, that’s why we always have leadership problem, any serious issue like issue of the highest office of a country must not be given ethnic colouration to it, it’s bad. Nigeria as a nation cannot grow with such practice.

NIGERIA WILL BE 50 IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS. WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU ADVOCATE IN HOW WE ARE PRESENTLY CONSTITUITED?


The past fifty years has made it crystal clear that Nigeria cannot make any significant progress the way we are presently constituted.

Check your files and you will notice that the only time we made significant change was when each region governs themselves, our cultural backgrounds are entirely different, recently I had a cause to have audience with Emir of Kano, before I could be allowed to see these Emir a cap was procure for me so that I must wear it while speaking to the Emir whereas I must remove my cap whenever I am talking to Alaafin of Oyo or the Ooni of Ife and other Yoruba Obas.

I am not saying we must break Nigeria but there must be a way where each group must be allow to develop at its own pace, with a weak centre.


ARE YOU IMPRESSED WITH ACTING PRESIDENT SO FAR? IF NO, WHAT ARE THE ACTIONS YOU ARE AGAINST?


Honestly, it will be too early to assess him. I am presently compiling data on his activities since the disappearance of President YarÁdua, every statement made is given consideration in relationship with action taken and the resultant effects.
Our assessment will soon be out but in the interim he needs to act fast, firm and decisive to bring respect to the office of the President of Nigeria.
WHAT ARE THE THINGS YOU WILL WISH HIM TO FOCUS ON?
His extant term is very short, so he should concentrate on two areas; Electoral reform for credible electoral process and work on the power sector toward adequate power generation in making things work in Nigeria. By doing these two he will be making history as electoral reform will be a window to refix our cracked political foundation and reforming power generation will kick-start our amoebic economy, if our Lucky Joe can fixed these two problems of Nigeria, it ll be a new dawn for us.

Our leadership problem came as a result of bad leadership as we are yet to get the process of electing our leaders right, it has been universally acknowledge that there is no alternative to democracy which is solidify by credible election, election itself is exercising one of the fundamental rights, if we can get our electoral process right our elected not selected leaders will go with the people and be accountable to us not those that form a cabal somewhere under the platform of godfatherism or family affairs.

Then to power generation, once this too is fixed, Nigeria economy will blossom, go to anywhere in Nigeria everything is in comatose, without light many business concerns has packed up, that alone is the recipe for unemployement in any given society.

Jonathan should not bite more than what he cannot shew at a time, Yaradua's train load agenda should be a lesson for him, Yaradua's 7 points agenda is too much that alone can kill an ailing president even one of his appointees, Lamido Sanusi made a mess of the agenda before the Senate.

Acting President Jonathan has few month to round up this administration term, almighty God has bless him enough, all eyes are on him and good enough he is a graduate who understand the true meaning of virtue, classic and posterity, we can excused others Presidents or Heads of State before him for being uninformed and of prosaic personalities but he like Yaradua is a graduate like Abegunde Shonekan who Abacha did not allow to function ironically sickness too has stifled YarAdua.

So Acting President must justify these common but rare quality in Nigerian presidency and defend his degree, if he can do this, cross my heart I will close my bank account to buy his Presidntial nomination form (laughs)

- by Al Humphrey Onyanabo
080 2320 1073
email; alhumphreyo@yahoo.com