An
eye witness to the auto crash involving Ibnabo Fiberesima which led to
the death one Dr Giwa gave an account of how he saved Ibinabo on
the night of the accident.
Ibinabo Fiberesima
The eyewitness who claims to have saved the life of the Nollywood
actress, spoke to Charles Novia and was posted on his website.
Below is how Charles Novia reported the entire thing:
***********************************************
Nollywood has been in a state of understandable inertia since the
news came out of the blues that Ibinabo Fiberesima lost her case at the
Appeal Court in Lagos and was sent straight to Prison on Friday the 11th
of March 2016.
A lot of people thought that the case was done with long ago and we
were surprised that it had cropped up again with the implications of a
five year jail term for Ibinabo.
And the reactions thus far have not been in anyway hostile to the
Court’s judgement. Not at all. The industry is enlightened enough to bow
to the ruling of the law and respect it as it behoves on everyone. The
collective shock expressed is because Ibinabo is a beautiful soul. She’s
one of us. And one for all and all for one.
With opinions divided in the public sphere over the judgement, it
has been saddening to read uninformed comments by lots of people about
the case and some vitriol on the person of Ibinabo by many who don’t
even know her. Of course, everyone would have an opinion and that cannot
be taken from anyone. But such terms which ring of untruths that ‘she
was drunk that night and coming from a night club’ or ‘she killed
someone’ are absolutely untrue. It’s quite sad that we have no
investigative journalists anymore or that truth these days battle with
coloured lies and no one does anything about it.
In the past few days, Nollywood and Entertainment chat groups on
whatsapp ( and there are many but credible ones I belong to) have been
brainstorming on what next to do in this case. The law is the law and of
course it is a possibility that Ibinabo would be behind bars for some
time while everyone make efforts to take the next legal options to help
her. But the entertainment industry has never been this united in
showing sympathy and solidarity for one of us, unprecedented.
And so with chat groups proferring ideas on what to do next ( with
high profile celebrity visits already carried out to Kirikiri to
reassure Ibinabo by over fifty celebrities on Sunday the 13th of March)
someone sent a munched shot of the instagram page of the daughter of the
late Doctor Giwa who was reacting to Ibinabo’s son’s public plea for
prayers for his mother. The munched shot showed that the daughter was
understandably bitter and pained by her father’s death but to many who
read it in the chat group, it betrayed a lack of the real facts and had a
one – sided narrative which accused Ibinabo of ‘being drunk from a
night club outing’ and ‘running away from the scene of the accident’
after it happened.
I also read the open letter of the sister of late Doctor who
understandably gave an emotionally – charged one-sided narrative of what
she believes happened and ended her letter by applauding the Justice
system for vindicating her understandable anger towards Ibinabo for the
past eleven years.
There’s a saying in Pidgin English which says ‘na talk dey bring
talk’ and what happened thereafter this week is the stuff movies are
made of. No pun intended. It was totally unexpected.
One of the most important personalities in Nollywood in the chat
group, obviously distressed at the wrong notion about Ibinabo by the
deceased daughter blurted out that ‘you know, Guys? There are facts of
the case which I know and which haven’t come to light all these years.
My brother was an eye witness and saw all what happened that night’
The reaction was one of stunned questions. And immediately, I made
the decision to interview the eye witness to find out what he really saw
and what it was that happened which the public may not have heard these
years. I decided to do this as a public service responsibility first
and also to put whatever the new facts are in the public domain for
posterity to prove or dispel. And if these new revelations would help
heal wounds and bring about a new dawn of forgiveness and understanding,
then so be it.
I got the number of the eye witness from his sister in the chat
room and called him. Now, let me state here that this is no fiction.
This fellow is real and is willing to expose himself to the public
anytime to state what he saw. I have decided not to put his surname out (
even though he says he doesn’t mind) at this point in time but that
doesn’t detract from the real facts of this story.
‘Good afternoon, Mr. De Gaulle. Your sister gave me your number
to call you to find out what happened that night. My name is Charles
Novia’ I said, when he answered, my pen and recorder ready.
‘Oh ok. Yes, she told me you would call. My name is De Gaulle (
surname protected by me) You see, I’m ready to come out to testify or
say whatever happened that night of the accident because it happened in
my presence. I witnessed it and saw everything. We were many who saw
what happened that evening and I assumed that others might have told the
world what really went down but I’m surprised to read so many untrue
things about what happened at the scene of the accident that evening’ He said.
‘Please go ahead, Sir. I’m taking notes and recording’ I said
‘ Ok. I saw Ibinabo a few years ago ( about six years ago) in
Port Harcourt at a restaurant called Gessy ( or Jessy?). She was with
some of your colleagues and my sister was there too. I told my sister
that ‘Hey! That’s that girl whom I helped at the scene of the accident
years ago’. My sister was surprised and called Ibinabo to meet me. And
when I told her what I’m about to tell you, she was surprised and quiet
for a long time.
That evening, what happened was that the Doctor’s car was
coming from the Victoria Island axis of the first Lekki Roundabout which
leads into the Lekki Phase One Estate, while another SUV which was
being driven by Ibinabo was coming out from the estate, if I remember
correctly. I cannot tell who was speeding or what but we heard a loud
crash and then I think the doctors car somersaulted while the other car
driven by Ibinabo was flung a few metres to the other side.'
‘Was it midnight or late at night?’ I asked
‘No!’ Mr De Gaulle replied with much emphasis. ‘ It was early
evening. There was still the last trace of evening light. It might have
been just before seven o’clock or after seven. But it wasn’t late
So what happened was that the Doctor’s car was upside down and
somehow his hand was crushed and he was trapped in the car. Immediately a
few Area Boys and bystanders rushed to him to try and help him out of
the crushed car. I quickly parked my car and came out to help as I
rushed to the doctors car. A few other cars stopped as well.
I noticed that the other car was motionless and no one really
was paying much attention to that car. What got my attention was the
special number plates on the car which read ‘ DANIEL WILSON’ a popular
musician in the nineties in Nigeria.
When I got to the doctor’s car, the area boys and bystanders
were gathered round the car and were trying to help the man out of the
car in the upturned vehicle. At that point, the man was very much alive.
I swear he was alive and groaning but he was alive. His arm was crushed
or underpinned by the impact of the car and I still think that it was
the inexperience of the area boys and bystanders in trying to pull the
man out of the car, which killed him faster.
I am sorry to say that but that is my belief because of what I
saw. The people who gathered round that car may have meant well but they
were also callous in responding to the emergency and were dragging at
the man, trying to pull him from the crushed car.
The doctor kept crying out ( and I heard everything clearly
because I saw it and was even telling the crowd to be gentle) and was
shouting ‘ No! Take it easy! I’m a doctor. Don’t pull me like that.
Easy!’. I heard everything.
At this time, all attention was on the doctor. And I heard
someone in the crowd say that if anything happened to the man, they
would make sure the occupant in the other car suffers.
Immediately I heard that, I went to the other car because I
thought it was Daniel Wilson involved from the number plates. I was
surprised to see a fair-skinned lady behind the wheel, unconscious and
still. There was another lady in the car with her in the front seat. I
think it was a young lady of about sixteen years or a teenager. That
young lady was weeping and shaking.
After hearing what the guys at the other side had said about
the occupant of the car, my first instinct was to get them to safety or
to the hospital. I asked the young lady ‘ is there anyone you can call
to take you people to the hospital? You and this woman have to leave
this place now and get to a hospital’
I helped stop a taxi and helped carry the unconscious Ibinabo to the car and the taxi took them away.
Then I now returned to the other car of the late Doctor. When I
got there, another set of cars full of some doctors had arrived the
scene. The doctors said they were coming from some kind of meeting or
event near the beach or somewhere near if I remember and that the
bleeding occupant of the car was their colleague whom they had seen
earlier.
By the time I got back, the car had been turned to a standing
position but I believe it was too late for the injured person in that
car at that point.’
‘ So you say the doctor in the car was alive when the accident happened?’ I asked.
‘ He was. There was no immediate emergency care to help him
from competent medical personnel as what would obtain today and the
crowd tried to help him out and he was calling out in pain. It was sad
and painful. So when I saw Ibinabo a couple of years later in
Port-Harcourt and told her that I was the person who removed her from
the car and put her in a taxi, she was speechless and quaky. She too
could have died that evening. She didn’t run away from the scene of the
accident at all. I was the person who put her in a taxi to a hospital ‘
‘Why did it take you such a long time to come out to tell this story?’ I asked
‘ I have been in and out of Nigeria these past ten years. And I
actually thought too that the case was done with all this while. I was
surprised to hear that she was just sent to jail. Look, it was an
unfortunate thing which happened. And I am ready at anytime, ANYTIME if I
am called upon to testify on what I saw. It happened before my eyes. If
my testimony would help put facts straight, I am ready’
I got in touch with Daniel Wison who corroborated that Ibinabo drove his SUV that night in question.
‘She’s my sister. We are from the same state and local
government. It was the week of my mother’s burial and Ibinabo had come
from Port-Harcourt to help me with the burial. She was wonderful and
really supportive. That day, she needed the car to get to somewhere on
the island and I asked her to pick any from the pool of cars in my
compound. I was surprised when I got a call a couple of hours later that
there was an accident. I rushed to the hospital, St Nicholas, and she
was unconscious. But when she came out of it, she was delirious and traumatized. She was shaky.
'Look Charles, Ibinabo is a gentle soul. It was unfortunate
that the accident happened but it was not intentional in anyway. And we
have been begging the family of the late doctor. Who said we haven’t
begged? I personally, made numerous visits to the house to see the widow
and elders of the family. We attended the burial of the doctor. I was
there. We begged and begged. Not because we think begging could bring
the man back but just because it’s human nature to forgive. So, it’s not
true that we remained aloof’ Daniel concluded.
It’s been much of a nagging battle for me to decide if I should put
out this story or not. The initial hesitation was borne out of the fact
that many people would misconstrue the new testimony as somewhat of a
convenient revelation just to help a colleague, seeing that we are in
the same industry.
But at the end of my internal consideration, a part of me decided
to put it out anyway. First, to record a new chronicle of the whole sad
accident which millions, including me, never knew happened. It’s better
to be on the side of history which stands for true reportage of events
in this case. And since Mr De Gaulle is very willing to give his account
to any reporter or law enforcement agent for some measure of revision, I
am prepared too to give out his number to members of the fourth estate
of the realm and even the late doctor’s family to find out more from the
fellow himself.
Finally, I have always maintained that we all are bound by the laws
of our society. Ibinabo is serving a sentence passed by a law court and
we respect that. We sympathize with her and as an industry would share
the comfort between her and the family of the late Doctor.
But the final closure of this matter, beyond the law and prison
sentence she would serve, rests on the family of the late Dr. Giwa
really. Now that there is a final vindication, as gleamed from the
letter by the late doctor’s sister, what happens after Ibinabo serves
her sentence? Would the family carry the hurt till the end of time?
A platform for reconciliation and forgiveness has to be set in
motion. This is not just about the law now but about healing. Healing.
Healing for all parties.
