Former Delta State Governor, James Ibori, has denied reports that he was deported from the United Kingdom last weekend after serving a jail term for money laundering.
A section of the media had reported that his unannounced arrival in Nigeria on Saturday was because of his deportation.
The 57-year-old, however, denied the reports in a statement released on Monday by his media aide, Tony Eluemunor.
“Even though I had wanted to publicise my return to Nigeria so that wrong meanings would not be read into the public interest I knew my presence in Nigeria would elicit, and also because I never wanted any crowd that would gather because of me to disturb a single Nigerian in the course of their duties, all my efforts to keep the trip secret failed,” Ibori said.
“The airline that brought me into Nigeria is public knowledge. So, too, my disembarkation Airport.
So, it would be easy to verify that I was not deported because the deporting country’s officials would always hand over deportees to Nigerian immigration officials and documents would also be exchanged.
“Those who have chosen to report lies, and claim that I was deported know that no document exists anywhere in the world to back up those malicious claims.
The statement pointed out that a record of documented letters between Ibori’s solicitors and the British Home Office exist which proves that he was granted leave to exit Britain voluntarily.
It also made reference to report by Reuters, BBC and several Nigerian news outlets that the politician would return to Nigeria in a matter of days.
“He did not announce the exact day so as to avoid the situation that would result in crowd control challenges for the security services,” the statement added.
Ibori also denied owning a Twitter account.
A fake Twitter handle set up with the former governor’s name has been sending out messages, which his handlers said must have been created by a confidence trickster to lure incredulous Nigerians into a 419 trap.
