‘HOW I SAVED IBINABO FIBERISIMA’S LIFE ON THE NIGHT
OF THE ACCIDENT’ EYE WITNESS SPEAKS TO CHARLES
NOVIA.
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 traumatised. She was
shaky. Look Charles, Ibinabo is a gentle soul. It was
unfortunate that the accident happen 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 sympathise
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.
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