BREAKING STORY: Ibinabo Fiberesima, Fresh Revelation From an Eye Witness

Ibinabo fiberesima, who had been judged by a court of totally
uninformed people’s opinion, is currently languishing in jail for an
accident that almost took her life. Haters said she was drunk,
going from one club to another that night. After many years, an
eyewitness said area boys who rushed to the scene of the accident and
lack of urgent medical attention were partly responsible for those
beautiful lives who met their untimely deaths that night. He also helped
in rushing Ibinabo out the scene of the accident because the surviving
occupants of the deceased car had threatened to deal with her, should
anything happen to the doctor. According to the eyewitness, the incident
took place at 7 PM.

Also, Daniel Wilson whose car Ibinabo drove that night said, IB, who
hails from the same village with him, was helping him out with the
running around of his mother’s burial.

This writer ( a good friend of IB) spoke with Ibinabo many years
after the incident when one of her colleagues gave me an entirely
different version of that happened during the accident. Ibinabo told me
exactly what the eyewitness said.

Please read the full interview.

‘ 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.