Chuks Okocha
8 September 2008
Abuja — Following the discovery of the wreckage of the Wings Aviation's aircraft, which disappeared in March this year, former Governor of Delta State,Chief James Ibori, has said that he had been vindicated stressing that the plane was mischievously linked to him.
According to a statement signed by his media adviser, Tony Elumenor, Ibori said: "First, we must admit that a large section of the media showed crass insensitivity in this air disaster, viewing it not as a national tragedy; instead, a comical approach prevailed as it was inexplicably politicised by some interest groups to score cheap political points.
"We embraced gutter-level politics, personal and group malfeasance, instead of uniting in a consolidated effort to rescue the crew members.
"Thus, we showed how cheaply we value human lives, even the lives of fellow Nigerians, when we repudiated that duty and began dealing in lies. In this, not only did we not care about the victims, we also hurt the feelings of their close relations. They must have found it excruciating to be fencing off suggestive remarks that the family members whose fates they were fervently praying for were being regarded as felons, who smuggled their plane outside Nigeria."
"Of course, Ibori was the object of that low-level attack in both the electronic and print media, accused of spiriting the plane out of the country for several, and at times conflicting reasons. Even after the owner of the plane admitted that the aircraft was his, some people still decided to misinform the public.
"Now, the truth, most unfortunately though, is out, as the crashed plane has been found. So I did not arrange for the aircraft to be flown abroad after all, stuffed with dollars and documents as my enemies had stated," Iboti said, adding, "most unfortunately, too, the three crew members perished."
He said Ibori's heart bleeds for them, "as they died gruesomely in a genuine cause of duty, but we killed them a second time, when for no reason at all, we tagged them criminals."
He also said "I am not saying this solely because of the attacks on my person and family, for I believe that in the end, truth must establish itself. Or did I go to Cross Rivers State to plant the wreckage there? Or better still, have all the liars who broadcast the fiction that the aircraft was sighted in some African countries, stuffed with dollars, not been disgraced by God? Yet, I would have preferred, if the choice had been mine, to continue to suffer from being the victim of a thousand of such lies more, if only that would have kept the victims of that air crash alive.
"Our journalists should deeply reconsider the reportage given to this national disaster, and how my political enemies misled them into maligning my name. Some persons who had thought they were the direct successors to the Obasanjo administration have always sought an opportunity to impute to me things I know nothing about. So too did they maliciously attribute to me the ownership of the collapsed Abuja shopping mall that was under construction. One day, the truth about that collapsed building will be fully revealed, as all persons of good conscience know, there must be a limit to attempts to tarnish a person's image."
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