Encomium
– How she lives like a queen inside five star hospital
FORMER Oceanic Bank Plc MD/CEO, Dr. (Mrs.) Cecilia Ibru is not in Ikoyi Prisons where she supposed to be serving her 18-month jail term which runs concurrently. The disgraced former bank chief is rather living big at Reddington, a highbrow private hospital in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Treated like a queen at the Reddington Royal Suites, reserved for the rich and mighty, Mrs. Ibru may likely spend the remaining months there, escaping seeing the four walls of a prison.
Convicted on Friday, October 8, 2010, in an amended 3-count charge before Justice Dan Abutu of Federal High Court, Lagos, Ibru bagged 18 months which would, however, run concurrently for six months.
But it is not only the light sentence that is raising alarm. The embattled former Oceanic Bank boss may even spend a better part of the sentence in the comfort of her new abode.
Mrs. Ibru is enjoying this special privilege, courtesy of her defence lawyer’s allocutus (plea for leniency) on grounds of ill-health. Having succeeded in the plea bargain, which also helped him get light jail term for his client, Taiwo Osipitan (SAN) went on to inform the court that Mrs. Ibru is still on admission at Reddington, where she is receiving treatment for chronic cardiac disease, congestive heart failure, chronic hypertension and lower extremities. It was on this ground that Justice Abutu granted her request.
Interestingly, the offences she committed carry a sentence under Section 16(1)(a) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act, a term not exceeding four years without an option of fine. But this was jettisoned to appreciate her for not wasting the time and resources of the court.
Mrs. Ibru would, however, in addition to wearing the toga of an ex-convict, forfeit assets and properties worth N190 billion. They include 94 choice properties scattered across the world. She also forfeited billions of shares in blue chip companies as well as banks for official negligence, reckless granting of credit facilities to the tune of $20 million and N2 billion as well as other fraudulent practices.
Sacked alongside four other bank chiefs on August 14, 2009, Mrs. Ibru surrendered to EFCC on August 27. It was from there she was charged and remanded in prison custody until she was granted bail on September 14, 2009.
It was as the trial was going on that EFCC got an order to freeze her accounts and an interim injunction to seize her properties anywhere in the world.
This story was first published in Encomium Weekly on Tuesday, October 12, 2010
