Intelligence report in possession of security agencies detailed to arrest wanted former governor of Delta State, James Ibori, reportedly confirmed that he is still in the country, contrary to reports that he had fled abroad.

The report is said to have also pooh-poohed the escape story as a dummy being sold by Ibori and his camp to a section of the media to take the nation’s attention away from him, before he would allegedly flee the country to an island in European.

Saturday Tribune source disclosed that the security agencies detailed to arrest him had been able to establish that he was still in the country and would get him soon.

“We have been able to establish that he is still in the country. The story that he escaped is a dummy being sold to the public by him so that Nigerians can forget about him. We don’t want to talk much about where he is now, so that we would not be exposing our strategy, but I can assure you that we are getting him soon,” the source stated.

It was further gathered that the officers of the State Security Service (SSS) drafted into the search for him had refused to give up on searching for him in the creeks around his hometown (Oghara), based on the intelligence report at their disposal that he was still in the hiding there.

Despite confirmation by credible sources that he had been sighted penultimate Friday, the nation, on the following Sunday, woke to reports on an on-line blog that he had escaped to Cameroun, using a secret route in the creeks and assisted by former militants sympathetic to his cause.

By last Monday, the reports, in a section of the media, claimed that he had landed in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which declared him wanted in connection with an alleged N44 billion scam while in office as governor for eight years, according to a source, was almost buying into the escape theory until the intelligence report confirmed that Ibori was still in the country.

A media report in the week had claimed that the commission had started searching for the former governor in the Asian country.

However, as of last Friday, sources revealed that the commission was also certain that the wanted suspect was still in the country and confident that the security agencies detailed on him would deliver him soon.

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