Icheokudotcom is revisiting this subject once again, principally because of the varying positions people have taken on the matter of Nuhu Ribadu, depending on which side of the isle they are - the pro and the anti Nuhu Ribadu. We are non-partisan since we have no dog in the fight between Nuhu Ribadu and Umaru Yar'Adua's government, but that the truth be told. Nuhu Ribadu has become the talking point of all commentators and news analyst world-wide particularly in Nigeria because of the dehumanising treatment he has been receiving in the hands of the Nigerian authorities. Some of his critics said he deserved all that he got because he once mistook tinsels for gold and forgot that one day a king who does not know Joseph will rise and call for rendering of account. He is a lawyer, by training, who abused the legal process by rail-roading suspects without any justifiable cause or much regard to due process whatsoever. He was so efficient in carrying water for his master and mentor, monster Olusegun Obasanjo that he received accelerated promotions jumping his seniors and colleagues in the process - from assistant superintendent to Assistant Inspector General as a reward for a job well executed - haranguing opponents of Olusegun Obasanjo, out of peaceful existence. Like a hit-man, Nuhu Ribadu held sway and every knee trembled at his name's mention. However, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was oblivious of the the fleeting nature of power! That power was very ephemeral indeed, made no sense to his deafened-ears! In his take no prisoner style of his newly acquired authority, Nuhu forgot that the yesterday's terrorist-oppressor could become today's haunted and vanquished! This gives credit to the vanity of man! Nuhu Ribadu is not the only pawn ever to be used by men of power in Nigeria. Akilu and Togun were used by Ibrahim Babangida! Mustapha was used by Sani Abacha! So many people have equally benefited for being "good-errand boys" to the men in power, including the current Inspector General of Police in Nigeria, Mike Okilo, who was promoted ahead of his superiors to be the IG of police in Nigeria. Who has not benefited from past despots? Umaru Yar'Adua was a product of the criminal machination of Olusegun Obasanjo who single-handedly imposed him on Nigerians without any proper election; yet he presides over Nigeria, sitting in judgment over the likes of Nuhu Ribadu, his co-beneficiary of Olusegun Obasanjo devilish magnanimity. Who made Umaru Yar'Adua a judge over Nuhu Ribadu when they are both guilty as charged of illegality? Our commentary therefore is, if the Nigerian authorities want to redress all the wrongs of Olusegun Obasanjo, they should be comprehensive about it and not embark on a mere witch-hunting escapade against a particular individual called Nuhu Ribadu. What about conducting a fresh elections for the presidency which is presently being occupied by a very sick-man who never contested nor won any election in the first place? Yet still, they can tell the IG to go back to his former rank and make the rightful heir to the IG of police, Ogbonnaya Onovo, the new IG of police? You want to right the wrongs? What about holding Olusegun Obasanjo responsible for the massacres of Odi and Zaki-Ibiam? Also has the murderers of Attorney General Bola Ige been found? Talk about putting Nuhu Ribadu back to the rank where he rightfully belongs? What is good for the goose is also good for the gander! This will be our last devotion to the mongrel Nuhu Ribadu since there is no love lost between him and Icheokudotcom. We witnessed him get drunk on power hence tasting a little bit of his portion ordinarily wouldn't have been a bad idea. Our position however is that justice must not only be done but must manifestly be seen to be done. Singling out Nuhu Ribadu as the only beneficiary of Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo "mala-benevolence" deserving to be punished, is not just fair. Nuhu Ribadu dutifully prostituted for his new rank of AIG by bending over backward without question for Olusegun Obasanjo; and should be left alone otherwise no "dutiful" ass-licker will ever emerge in Nigeria again. We believe that Umaru Yar'Adua has promoted some people un-meritoriously too and state that he will not like to see such promotion debased by a future incoming administration? On a final note, the Nigerian authorities should leave Nuhu Ribadu alone, believing that he as well as other Nigerians have learnt a lesson of the transient nature of power; in any event let there be a total reset of the Nigerian button from the presidency downwards! Salut!Wednesday, November 26, 2008
NUHU RIBADU, WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND!
Icheokudotcom is revisiting this subject once again, principally because of the varying positions people have taken on the matter of Nuhu Ribadu, depending on which side of the isle they are - the pro and the anti Nuhu Ribadu. We are non-partisan since we have no dog in the fight between Nuhu Ribadu and Umaru Yar'Adua's government, but that the truth be told. Nuhu Ribadu has become the talking point of all commentators and news analyst world-wide particularly in Nigeria because of the dehumanising treatment he has been receiving in the hands of the Nigerian authorities. Some of his critics said he deserved all that he got because he once mistook tinsels for gold and forgot that one day a king who does not know Joseph will rise and call for rendering of account. He is a lawyer, by training, who abused the legal process by rail-roading suspects without any justifiable cause or much regard to due process whatsoever. He was so efficient in carrying water for his master and mentor, monster Olusegun Obasanjo that he received accelerated promotions jumping his seniors and colleagues in the process - from assistant superintendent to Assistant Inspector General as a reward for a job well executed - haranguing opponents of Olusegun Obasanjo, out of peaceful existence. Like a hit-man, Nuhu Ribadu held sway and every knee trembled at his name's mention. However, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was oblivious of the the fleeting nature of power! That power was very ephemeral indeed, made no sense to his deafened-ears! In his take no prisoner style of his newly acquired authority, Nuhu forgot that the yesterday's terrorist-oppressor could become today's haunted and vanquished! This gives credit to the vanity of man! Nuhu Ribadu is not the only pawn ever to be used by men of power in Nigeria. Akilu and Togun were used by Ibrahim Babangida! Mustapha was used by Sani Abacha! So many people have equally benefited for being "good-errand boys" to the men in power, including the current Inspector General of Police in Nigeria, Mike Okilo, who was promoted ahead of his superiors to be the IG of police in Nigeria. Who has not benefited from past despots? Umaru Yar'Adua was a product of the criminal machination of Olusegun Obasanjo who single-handedly imposed him on Nigerians without any proper election; yet he presides over Nigeria, sitting in judgment over the likes of Nuhu Ribadu, his co-beneficiary of Olusegun Obasanjo devilish magnanimity. Who made Umaru Yar'Adua a judge over Nuhu Ribadu when they are both guilty as charged of illegality? Our commentary therefore is, if the Nigerian authorities want to redress all the wrongs of Olusegun Obasanjo, they should be comprehensive about it and not embark on a mere witch-hunting escapade against a particular individual called Nuhu Ribadu. What about conducting a fresh elections for the presidency which is presently being occupied by a very sick-man who never contested nor won any election in the first place? Yet still, they can tell the IG to go back to his former rank and make the rightful heir to the IG of police, Ogbonnaya Onovo, the new IG of police? You want to right the wrongs? What about holding Olusegun Obasanjo responsible for the massacres of Odi and Zaki-Ibiam? Also has the murderers of Attorney General Bola Ige been found? Talk about putting Nuhu Ribadu back to the rank where he rightfully belongs? What is good for the goose is also good for the gander! This will be our last devotion to the mongrel Nuhu Ribadu since there is no love lost between him and Icheokudotcom. We witnessed him get drunk on power hence tasting a little bit of his portion ordinarily wouldn't have been a bad idea. Our position however is that justice must not only be done but must manifestly be seen to be done. Singling out Nuhu Ribadu as the only beneficiary of Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo "mala-benevolence" deserving to be punished, is not just fair. Nuhu Ribadu dutifully prostituted for his new rank of AIG by bending over backward without question for Olusegun Obasanjo; and should be left alone otherwise no "dutiful" ass-licker will ever emerge in Nigeria again. We believe that Umaru Yar'Adua has promoted some people un-meritoriously too and state that he will not like to see such promotion debased by a future incoming administration? On a final note, the Nigerian authorities should leave Nuhu Ribadu alone, believing that he as well as other Nigerians have learnt a lesson of the transient nature of power; in any event let there be a total reset of the Nigerian button from the presidency downwards! Salut!
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Christy 'Apena' Essien-Igbokwe , the wife of Jegede Shokoya of the New Masquerade and Nigeria's lady of songs is dead; she was 51years old. Although her family claimed that "brief Illness" killed her like so many Nigerians; Icheoku retorts that it was most likely AKwa Ibom voodoo and remote control that was used to arrest her. It is on record that she had fallen out with the governor of her native Akwa Ibiom State and have been having a relentless war for political turf with the governor? So who knows whether she was sacrificed to Ekpe cult or even Alusi-Okija as an offal; afterall African science is still very much alive and portent. May her soul rest in peace.
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Ribadu: Bakare Cautions Yar’Adua
ReplyDeleteBy Mary Ekah, 11.26.2008
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The Serving Overseer, Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has asked President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to handle the case of the former Chairman of the Economic and Finance Crimes Commission, (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, with caution so as not to discourage genuine Nigerians from serving the nation.
He said the manner in which the case was being handled was more or less exaggerated and was merely aimed at humiliating the for carrying out his job in the past without fear or favour. He stressed that unless President Yar'Adua handled Ribadu’s matter with care, it might boomerang on his administration.
Bakare said this yesterday during a press conference to address the issue of proliferation of churches in the face of the rising cases of moral decadence in the country and other national issues. Bakare and the Presiding Pastor, Realm of Glory International Church, Abraham Sam Aiyedogbon, jointly addressed the briefing.
Ribadu was last weekend stopped from participating in the graduation ceremony of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, even though he was a participant in the course. But government later directed that his certificate be given to him.
"With the harassment and humiliation of the young man, you discourage people who want to serve their country with passion," Pastor Bakare said, wondering why a government that prides itself in rule of law would deliberately trample on the rights of the former EFCC boss.
He said most disappointing about the whole issue was the attitude of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, who has seen nothing wrong in what shabby treatment being meted out on Mr. Ribadu.
The press conference was part of a three-day apostolic conference titled 'The Manifestation of the True Sons of God', which started on Monday and was rounded off yesterday at the Realm Of Glory Church, Okota, Lagos.
Bring Ribadu’s persecutors to justice
ReplyDeleteBy Punch Editorial Board
Published: Thursday, 27 Nov 2008
The embarrassing and shameful scene enacted by some goons at the graduation ceremony for the Senior Executive Course 30 of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru over the appropriateness of the former Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Malam Nuhu Ribadu’s participation in the ceremony calls for an immediate action by the Yar’Adua administration.
Some security operatives had manhandled the former EFCC boss and, in a brazen display of lawlessness, forced him out of the graduation venue in the presence of the Vice-President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, and other important dignitaries. Ribadu was humiliated in the presence of his friends and family members.
The Federal Government has commendably moved to dissociate itself from the awful disregard for the rule of law displayed by Ribadu’s persecutors at the ceremony and has ordered the immediate release of his certificate. The government has also caused a panel to be set up to look into the flagrant violation of Ribadu’s rights at the ceremony. It is hoped that the President’s order will be promptly complied with by the NIPSS authorities.
It is imperative, however, that those behind Ribadu’s long-running ordeal should be exposed and brought to justice before they do further damage. Who are the people that soiled the human rights image of the country at Kuru? Who are those behind the desecration of Yar’Adua’s rule of law profile?
The Kuru incident appears to be part of a well-planned plot by a cabal to humiliate Ribadu, if not to destroy him. It is already in the public domain that the former EFCC boss will be tried on trumped-up charges and jailed for stepping on powerful toes while in office. When he was sent on the NIPSS course late last year, the tone of the press release on the controversial course clearly demonstrated the agony of a government caught in a mesh of confusion. It was obvious that the Kuru course was only a ruse. Part of the Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro’s justification then was that Ribadu’s course would prepare him for promotion. But as soon as the government muddled through the unpopular and illegal removal, the Police authorities moved again, demoting him from the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police to Deputy Commissioner of Police.
After the demotion, there were still spirited attempts to abort his NIPSS course. Now, it is reported that Ribadu is being questioned for corrupt self-enrichment and failure to wear his down-graded ranks. Who then is behind Ribadu’s travails?
This government should apprehend Ribadu’s persecutors because they are already eroding the public confidence in the administration’s ability to uphold the rule of law, thus giving the impression that the President cannot exercise his powers properly and in the best interest of all. Indeed, the antics in easing Ribadu out of the EFCC without an official letter clearly stating that he had been removed marked the beginning of that diabolical plot.
When he was being sworn in on May 29, 2007, President Yar’Adua had pledged his determination “to intensify the war against corruption” because, as he said then, “its corrosive effect is all too visible in all aspects of our national life”. He had equally acknowledged that the nation had made significant progress in recent years and promised to maintain the momentum. There is no doubt that Ribadu was part of that “significant progress” recorded in the nation’s anti-graft war.
No matter his shortcomings, Ribadu is a national icon recognised globally as having done his best to stem official graft. It is on record that, under his leadership, the EFCC has notched up some unprecedented successes such as the convictions for graft of former IGP Tafa Balogun and former Governor of Bayelsa, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, among others. In the last few months of his leadership of the agency, the EFCC arrested a number of former state governors, including James Ibori over $85 million fraud allegation. Under him, the EFCC prosecuted over 400 cases and obtained about 120 convictions, including the $242 million case involving a Brazilian bank.
No doubt, some forces are bent on denting the Yar’Adua administration’s human rights record, undermining its rule of law principle and hijacking its anti-graft crusade. The Ribadu case has become a major embarrassment to this government and a dent on the nation’s democratic credentials. With the way Ribadu is being hounded, it may be difficult to get patriotic and committed people to serve the nation. The probe ordered by the Presidency should be thorough and its outcome made public. The nation is doomed if the cabal hounding Ribadu is allowed to emasculate and ground the whole machinery for fighting corruption
OBJ boy on the cross
ReplyDeleteBy WILLY EYA (willyeya@yahoo.com)
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Life is a mystery and it continues to play tricks on men. It is one long stretch of uncertainty and so unpredictable that it could take one up the mountain top and push one down the valley almost simultaneously.
Life is a basket full of the “sweet and sour”. Ralph Butler, a philosopher says, “life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises” and another great thinker, Blaise Pascal believes that, “it is not certain that everything in life is uncertain”. In all of this seeming confusion over the whole essence of life, what is certain is that man’s fate hangs in the balance and swings like a pendulum.
Arguably, the above context captures what has transpired in Nigeria since the exit of the immediate past President, Olusegun Obasanjo, in May last year. Contrary to predictions, many of those who called the shots in the last administration have literally fallen from their Olympian heights. Before now, only mere mention of their names opened just about any door; sometimes, was a scare! They were so “Powerful” in Obasanjo’s administration that their opinions were perceived as that of the former president.
But since President Umaru Yar’Adua came on board, so much has changed in the nation’s political configuration. While a fresh class of power brokers has emerged, many of those who wielded influence under Obasanjo are either in the eye of the storm or are gradually relapsing into political oblivion. To many, the lesson is that no condition is permanent. Those whose fate should be a point of reference here include:
Nuhu Ribadu
‘The fear of Ribadu, is the beginning of wisdom’. Anyone who didn’t know, in both political and business circles, that that cliché was real during the years of Obasanjo in Aso Rock, was probably not in Nigeria at the time. In fact, Ribadu was a “small god”. As the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he was dreaded by all, irrespective of status. But in his years as the anti-corruption Czar, many perceived him as having brought dignity and pride to Nigeria. Those in this school of thought believe that he genuinely fought corruption in the country. But there are those who insist that he was used to fight an agenda of the Obasanjo administration in particular and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in general.
The former anti-graft boss was an Assistant Commissioner for Police when he was appointed to head the EFCC in 2003 but within a period of four years, he was catapulted to the rank of Commissioner of Police and subsequently, Assistant Inspector General of Police. At the twilight of Obasanjo’s administration, speculations were rife that Ribadu was even going to be named the Inspector General of Police. His meteoric ascendancy in the police force, to many, was compensation for the hatchet job he did for his paymaster, such as keeping his political foes on their toes.
But Yar’Adua’s emergence as president turned out an anti-climax in the hitherto blossoming career and influence of Ribadu in the nation’s power equation. No sooner had the present government come on board than rumour of his impending removal as the EFCC boss came to the public domain. It later did not come as a surprise when he was relieved of his seat and sent for a mandatory one-year course at the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Jos. As if to compound his woes, he was demoted from the rank of an AIG to that of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, putting a question mark on his qualification for the elite institute. The high point of his ordeal was when Ribadu was stopped from participating in the graduation ceremony of the institute after successfully completing the programme.
President Yar’Adua had to intervene for him to be given his certificate as a graduate of NIPSS.
At the moment, it is not yet clear how far the former anti-corruption boss will go in his suit against the Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro. At a Federal High Court in Abuja, he had filed an action seeking to stop Okiro from relating with him as a Deputy Commissioner of Police. The question is: Even if he succeeds in his effort to get justice, will he still be comfortable working in an establishment he is fighting? For Ribadu, the situation is like “one week, one trouble”.
Indeed, nobody would have contemplated a Ribadu being in trouble but the table has turned and the Adamawa-born cop is tasting the same bitter pill he fed others when he was lord of the manor.
Clerics caution Police on Ribadu
ReplyDeleteBy Agency reporter
Published: Monday, 1 Dec 2008
A cleric, Mr. George Fakolade, has cautioned the Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro, against maltreating the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.
Fakolade, who described himself as a prophet, said that Ribadu would be the next Inspector-General of Police.
Fakolade visited the Abuja’s office of the Punch last Thursday with what he called, ‘Emergency Divine Press Release.”
According to him, ‘God has decided to intervene in the case of Ribadu’.
He said, “Nuhu Ribadu is the next Inspector-General of Police. He will take over from Mike Okiro. Anything Okiro or Osayande seek to do to him, they are merely wasting their time. God is on the side of Ribadu. What Ribadu did for this country, no other person had done it.”
Fakolade said that in the past, his prophecies had come to pass. He cited the case of former President Olusegun Obasanjo whom he said, he prophesised that he would not achieve his third term agenda.
Also, the Head, Christ Apostolic Church, Oke-Aanu, Osogbo, Pastor Emmanuel Akeredolu, said Ribadu was being victimised because he stepped on toes of some corrupt and powerful members of the public.
Akeredolu, who spoke at the 17th Thanksgiving of the Osun State council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, in Osogbo, on Sunday, advised the Federal Government to stop the victimisation of Ribadu.
Kolade flays Ribadu's travails
ReplyDeleteWritten by Ola Ajayi
Tuesday, 02 December 2008
A former Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Dr. Christopher Kolade, yesterday, said the travails of the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, indicated that Nigerians were not in tune with good and selfless service.
Kolade noted that while Ribadu's performance was being hailed worldwide, Nigerians were busy castigating him just because “we cannot stand such an excellent performance from a young officer like him.”
He said this at a lecture, entitled: “The Uses of Curiosity,” delivered at the fourth Foundation Day ceremony of the Ajayi Crowder University, Oyo.
He cited a former judge at the International Court of Justice, Prince Bola Ajibola and ex-minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who served in the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, adding that Nigerians had a way of turning the tide of things whenever anything enviable was about to happen to the country.
Said the former envoy: “I refer to the curious allergy that our nation seems to have for good people and good performance. Whenever anything good happens or threatens to happen to us, it seems that we always find a way to turn the tables against ourselves. It is almost as if it makes us ill to endure anything good for more than a very short period.”
Kolade noted that despite the meritorious role Okonjo-Iweala played in the transformation of the Nigerian economy within three years, she was sidelined after which the World Bank embraced the good qualities Nigeria failed to see in her. She was given a much higher position, he stressed.
Ribadu cries out again
ReplyDeleteBy Emma Anya and Tony Amokeodo
Published: Thursday, 4 Dec 2008
The former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has again said his life is being threatened by unknown persons.
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former Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu
Ribadu, who admitted that he “made a lot of enemies” while leading the EFCC in the war against graft, said the fresh threats were a near-direct encounter with armed men and through telephone calls.
“I fear for my life,” Ribadu told an international rights group, the Human Rights Watch, on Monday. He, however, said he would not be cowed by the harassment and intimidation against him.
The former anti-graft czar had on October 30, 2008 told a Federal High Court in Lagos that his demotion from the post of Assistant Inspector-General of Police to Deputy Commissioner of Police and the move to transfer him to an unknown location would put his life in danger.
His demotion was after he had been sent by the Police authorities to the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State, for an executive course. The NIPSS programme was a prelude to his removal as the chairman of the EFCC.
Fresh travails however came his way as he was prevented by security operatives from participating in the graduation ceremony at the NIPSS, even though he had been listed among the fresh graduands.
While the controversy over the security agents’ action persisted, he was issued with three queries by the Police authorities for acts considered as a serious misconduct. He is billed to face a Police disciplinary committee in Kaduna today.
But narrating his ordeals to the HRW, Ribadu said he believed that the plots against him were linked to his work at the EFCC.
The former EFCC chairman disclosed that one of such threats occurred late in September 2008 when he was driving from Jos, Plateau State, to Abuja.
He said, “At around 6 that morning, I noticed a car with about four men in it following me. I stopped at a filling station and it passed me, but some minutes later, I saw the car coming toward me from the other direction. As the vehicle approached, a man in the back opened fire on my vehicle with a pistol.
“The three bullets which hit my car cracked a part of my windscreen, broke the side-view mirror, and hit a side panel on the car.”
More recently, Ribadu said he received threatening telephone calls in which he was advised to “say his last prayers.”
But sounding defiant, he said, “The harassment and the intimidation are meant to put fear in me; to break me; but I am going to stand and continue standing.”
However, indications emerged on Wednesday that he would not appear before the police disciplinary committee in Kaduna since the Federal High Court had ordered that all actions against him must be put on hold pending the determination of his suit against the police and the PSC.
Ribadu’s lawyer, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN), confided in our correspondents on Wednesday that his client would not appear before the panel.
He said, “We have filed an action at the ECOWAS Court in Abuja on Wednesday on the matter.
“We are challenging the propriety of the panel and we want the court to hold that the proceedings of the panel will affect the fundamental human right of Ribadu.”
The HRW has, however, called on the Federal Government to protect Ribadu in view of the “escalating campaign of harassment, threats, and an apparent attempt on his life.
“The campaign of intimidation against Ribadu appears aimed at silencing a key voice in the crucial fight against corruption in Nigeria,” the group said through its director in Africa, Georgette Gagnon.
“The Nigerian government and President Umaru Yar’Adua need to protect Ribadu and anyone else who dares to speak out against the corrupt and powerful,” it added.
The group said that Ribadu was removed from his position in December 2007 after the EFCC arrested and arraigned a powerful politician known to be close to the President.
It noted that during Ribadu’s tenure, the EFCC’s credibility was at times tarnished by its apparent selective prosecution of political opponents of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The group also said it was worried that despite pledges to allow the EFCC to pursue an impartial “zero-tolerance,” the Yar’Adua administration had seriously undermined the fledgling anti-corruption efforts that began under its predecessor.
Ribadu’s martyrdom: Another Nigerian security disaster
ReplyDeleteWith Wale Sokunbi
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Nuhu Ribadu
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Many of my readers disagree with my refusal to join the unqualified chorus of praise for Nuhu Ribadu the erstwhile Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that is commonplace in much of the Nigerian media. My argument is simply that his methods were too personal and subjective to be considered effective police work and that too often it was easy to see the hand of his master behind his tactics. Many of his cases seemed to be politically motivated.
The harassment of some known political enemies of his boss President Olusegun Obasanjo was clearly a substantial element of his agenda. Several of the cases that were pursued by him most conscientiously were definitely based on perceived disenchantment with the victims on the President’s part, especially during the notorious “third term” effort. Often when he may have had genuine reason for suspicion some of his investigations were compromised by the extraordinary, and sometimes even irregular, methods employed by him. In the memorable case of the EFCC vs D.S.P Alamieyeseigha the former Governor of Bayelsa State it is widely believed that the agency coerced some Assembly members into agreeing to impeach the Governor so he could be prosecuted.
It is very difficult to exonerate Ribadu from culpability in this exercise and as a result the eventual conviction of Alamieyeseigha was tainted by the suspicion that his guilt was programmed rather than proven. In spite of this it is understandable that Ribadu’s highly visible profile drew the admiration, not to say outright hero worship, of a substantial proportion of media commentators in Nigeria. He caught their imagination with his utterances as well as with carefully orchestrated raids and releases of information about cases involving major political figures. This was tailor made for sensational reporting.
With all this in mind when the present Administration chose to remove him from office it became clear that the link between his operations and the political disenchantment that characterised so much of the Obasanjo era had compromised his objectivity. His determined resistance to the orders of the new President gave the game away. It soon became clear that he had taken the crusading hero persona that the media had bestowed on him to heart.
We were thus treated to the spectacle of a public servant openly challenging the right of the Commander in Chief to transfer him from one office to another. In addition to this Ribadu had been the recipient of a clearly irregular promotion when Obasanjo publicly raised his hand at a banquet and announced that he was promoting him up to two or three grades above his official status and even indicated that if it was possible he would eventually make him head of the police.
In fact the truth is that the collaboration between them on the much touted fight against corruption seemed to be a vendetta guided by President Obasanjo rather than a genuine attempt to change values. For example up until now it has not been clearly explained where the moneys, for which Tafa Balogun the former Inspector General of Police was so roundly persecuted, came from.
The only thing that is clear is that it was not money stolen from the statutory funds of the police and no one has actually claimed that it was stolen from any government agency. Our findings suggest that these funds were left over from irregular contributions made by Governors during the elections of 2003 in order to buy their return to office and Balogun’s sin might have been that he did not report (deliver) the enormous surplus to his boss who was fully aware of the collection process.
However the issue on the ground right now is not Ribadu’s willingness to be used to hound the enemies of the former President but rather his own victimisation at the hands of security personnel at the graduation ceremony of the prestigious Nigerian Institute of Public Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPSS) at Kuru. It is totally unacceptable that the Security Agents of any administration, especially one that proclaims its adherence to the rule of law, should brutalise or embarrass any member of the public for any reason whatsoever.
When the victim is a controversial figure who has attained a high degree of notoriety in carrying out his duties the efforts of the authorities to either expose or reverse those of his actions that may have been improperly executed will be seriously compromised. Already the government has fallen foul of Ribadu’s excessive popularity in the media.
The attempt to reverse the irregular promotion that he gained when under the virtual tutelage of the former President has been widely portrayed as being an act of official vengeance. This perception has been fed by the public statements of Mr. Ribadu who has been reported as accusing the police and the EFCC of actually threatening his life.
The tussle has even generated support from powerful human rights activists and advocates of good governance who have conveniently forgotten his role in the persecution of the political enemies of President Obasanjo and now champion his cause as being that of a persecuted victim himself. With this situation in place the reported brutalisation of Mr. Ribadu and his family by security agents in Kuru is nothing short of an improbably stupid act on the part of those agents. One wonders where they got their orders from. It is interesting that all the appropriate command centres have disowned the event and are seeking to know what happened.
It is time for us to speak out on the conduct of the so-called “Security Agents” who surround our “big men”. In my work as a reporter I have fallen foul of their indiscipline too many times. A few weeks ago I had a confrontation with one of them who challenged me over a photograph I had taken. He claimed that he would smash my camera. I reacted with a little bit of madness myself and had common sense not prevailed there would have been a disastrous public scene.
The democratic process is fragile and those who are accustomed to operating under the aegis of authoritarian indiscipline will only destroy it if they are allowed to continue to behave as if they are not the servants of the people but their overlords. In the conduct of their duties in the new order they seem to be more of a throwback to the past than a harbinger of the future.
This was never more evident than in their treatment of Ribadu in Kuru. Ironically they used tactics that he had used perfectly, albeit in an intellectual rather than physical sense, when he headed the EFCC. The public sympathy that media glorification of his penchant for playing to the gallery has generated undermines genuine assessment of the legality of his record.
This has created an impressive body of public sympathy for him causing the actions of the security agents in Kuru to appear to be aimed at turning him into a martyr. In turn this undermines the image and achievements of the management of the EFCC under his successor.
The steady but low key dedication to caution and principle that the lady who succeeded him has pursued is the exact opposite of Ribadu’s style. When Security Agents harass him the public assumes that this is an official effort to further undo his work in the agency. It may not be true but it is certainly easy to believe. In creating this impression they have not helped the government whose interests they are supposed to protect.
World Body Links Ribadu’s Travails to Ex-Gov
ReplyDelete…Asks FG to protect his life
By Abimbola Akosile, 12.04.2008
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Globally respected anti-corruption watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW), yesterday frowned on Nigeria’s efforts to check official corruption. It linked the “falter” to “a campaign of calumny” against former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, after he decided to prosecute a “powerful” former governor.
The body, in a statement issued by its Associate, Africa Division, Mr. Thomas Gilchrist, called on the Federal Government to protect Ribadu, who informed the organisation that he had been subjected to an escalating campaign of harassment, threats and an apparent attempt on his life in recent weeks.
The body said Nigeria, the world’s eighth-largest oil exporter, suffers from rampant government corruption and mismanagement, which has led to gross violations of the right to basic health care and education.
It also stated that corruption also lies at the heart of Nigeria’s most pressing human rights problems and that many politicians have used stolen government revenues to sponsor political violence in order to win elections.
In an interview with HRW in Nigeria, Ribadu, a police official, said he feared for his life and believed the threats against him – including shots fired at him in late September and telephoned death threats – were linked to his work at the EFCC.
“I fear for my life,” Ribadu told the group. “I have made a lot of enemies.”
He was removed from his position in December 2007 after the commission arrested and indicted on corruption charges a politician who was known to be close to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
“The campaign of intimidation against Mr. Ribadu appears aimed at silencing a key voice in the crucial fight against corruption in Nigeria,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at HRW. “The Nigerian government and President Yar’Adua need to protect Ribadu and anyone else who dares to speak out against the corrupt and powerful.”
The anti-corruption watchdog also said despite Nigeria’s tremendous wealth, its abject poverty ranks among the worst in the world.
“Public funds that could have been spent on improving the lives of ordinary citizens have instead been squandered and stolen by members of Nigeria’s political elite. Nigeria’s compromised police force has consistently turned a blind eye to these and other abuses by well-connected politicians,” the statement read.
The group traced Ribadu’s previous efforts at fighting against official corruption in Nigeria, specifically mentioning his arrest and trial of a former governor from the South-south.
“In December 2007, the EFCC sent shock waves through the political establishment by arresting the powerful former governor and charging him with 103 counts of corruption, including an alleged attempt to bribe Ribadu with $15 million in cash to drop the case against him,” the statement read.
According to the body, “EFCC’s decision to prosecute [the ex-governor] was notable because the former governor was widely seen as politically untouchable. He is among the wealthiest politicians in Nigeria and is known to be a close associate of Yar’Adua. Two weeks later, the Inspector General of Police [Mike Okiro] ordered Ribadu to resign and attend a 10-month police training course.
“During his tenure at the EFCC – from 2003 to 2007 – Ribadu pursued politically sensitive investigations into suspected corrupt activities of powerful ruling-party officials, though the institution’s credibility was at times tarnished by its apparent selective prosecution of political opponents of then-president Olusegun Obasanjo”.
The Washington DC-based watchdog insisted that despite pledges to allow the EFCC to pursue an impartial ‘zero-tolerance’ effort to pursue corrupt officials, “the government of President Umaru Yar’Adua – now in its second year – has seriously undermined the fledgling anti-corruption efforts that began under his predecessor”.
According to the statement, “the EFCC under Ribadu indicted hundreds of individuals collectively implicated in the theft of several billion dollars. These included a former inspector general of police, several former state governors, and politically influential businessmen”.
Ribadu described to HRW the apparent attempt on his life in late September, while he was driving from Jos to Abuja, the capital. More recently, Ribadu told the group that he had received credible information about another planned attempt on his life.
He also said he had received threatening phone calls in which he is advised to “say his last prayers.”
“The harassment, the intimidation is meant to put fear in me, to break me, but I am going to stand and continue standing,” he told HRW.
Ribadu, the statement noted, firmly believes the posting would leave him vulnerable because the powerful former governors from all three of these states were investigated, charged, or convicted of corruption by the Ribadu-led EFCC.
“Ribadu is also a material witness in the corruption trial against [the ex-governor], should it take place,” Gilchrist said.
“Following the appointment of Farida Waziri as the new EFCC chair in May, the commission sacked at least 12 of its top investigators. Several were later reassigned to the states whose governors they had investigated. In February 2008, a senior EFCC official was attacked by armed thugs. In August, the former head of the unit investigating Ibori was arrested and held without charge for several weeks”, the group observed.
It also noted that interviewed judicial personnel and other political observers said certain actions by the attorney general had allegedly undermined anti-corruption efforts both in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom, including intervening on behalf of the ex-governor in a British court case involving his alleged embezzlement and money laundering of $35 million of state funds.
“Although Waziri has indicted several senior-level politicians, including three former governors and the head of the Nigerian Ports Authority, on corruption charges, the high-profile cases initiated under Ribadu, including that of [the ex-governor], have been effectively stalled. Meanwhile, the EFCC has initiated an investigation into Ribadu’s acquisition of property – a move considered by many observers to be politically motivated. Ribadu has on several occasions publicly declared his assets,” the group stated.
Unholy Pursuit By Wole Soyinka
ReplyDeleteTHE news reached me in Canada where I was participating in a conference whose theme, with a humiliating appropriateness was - Understanding Nigeria. I do not recollect when last I focused all my psychic energies so intensely on one objective only: that the news would not spread among our hosts, and local participants. There comes a saturation point when one's last wish, even under imminent execution, is to be spared having to answer one more question about yet another negative development from homeland, no matter whether one's response would be defensive, or in condemnatory agreement.
Sooner or later, repetition numbs the mind, renders it incapable of absorbing even the shock of the familiar. The escalation of a known tendency in its operations produces only a slightly different effect, one of delay - a brief moment of disbelief, bewilderment, and then - mind seizure. It was a deed of empathy that the weather in Toronto was freezing the body into near immobility - it helped to establish a state of equilibrium between body and soul - for once, I was grateful for inclement weather!
There were other Nigerian participants, flown in especially for the conference, prominently faculty from the University of Port Harcourt, among them, the Vice-Chancellor himself. It was, after all, collaboration on health and developmental projects with the University of Toronto and Massey College. The Nigerian embassy was fully involved, the ambassador making use the opportunity to clean up the image of Nigeria in his foreign constituency. He should consider himself very lucky. If the news had percolated through the conference, and I had been approached for a comment, I would have denied all knowledge and directed my questioner to him, as the government representative. Not for the first time, I felt genuine pity for Nigeria's diplomats abroad, obliged to explain the reasoning behind official, high-handed assaults on the simplest demands of natural justice, a disdain for plain, common decency towards individual deserving, such as that which took place at the NIPSS graduation ceremony, Kuru, on Saturday, November 22.
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Frankly, when I received the first phone call, I refused at first to believe it. Not until I had spoken to an eye-witness, who fleshed out the details of this latest public obscenity, would I accept that, once again, the persecution of a faithful servant of the nation had plunged beyond prior depths, turning Nuhu Ribadu, former arrowhead of the battle against corruption, into a pincushion for the sadistic games of reprobates and recidivists latched to the ear of power.
Criminal impunity has scaled the peaks of public glory; It basks in the rays of official endorsement, confident in the collaboration of executive agencies. Its message is transparent, and comprehensive. Just one example, an institutional sabotage, no less: there was a great deal of controversy over the choice of Nuhu Ribadu's replacement at the head of the Anti-corruption agency, the EFCC. In the end however, to cushion public resignation, there remained the hope that Madam Farida Waziri might actually feel challenged by the record of her predecessor and proceed to prove herself. But now, after the Kuru act of malevolent triumphalism against Nuhu, the efforts of that replacement, however genuine and dedicated, are permanently compromised, since this message is also for her = tread on any powerful toes, and see what will also happen to you.
National looting is now consecrated. So far, what we have largely witnessed and, for some, personally endured, has been the phenomenon of exposed criminals brazenly and confidently turning on their accusers with slanderous fabrications, a frenzied muddying of the waters to obscure clear vision and sap the resolve of witnesses of truth with assassination tactics, directed either at their pursuers' character and reputation or indeed, towards their physical elimination. So many unexplained murders, especially in the past decade are traceable to efforts to nail the miscreants and cleanse institutions of cabals of impunity.
The resolve to silence and block channels of exposure is as old as the nation itself - remorseless, crude, unscrupulous and lavishly funded. With the latest assault on Nuhu Ribadu however, the nation has been invited to understand that such responses are indeed the formal manifestation of the culture of power, transmitted in all its mottled panoply and in circumstances where no ambiguity is involved, no alternative interpretation possible.
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We learn that Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, who was present at the scene, has since requested that Nuhu Ribadu's certificate be handed over to him. Until this moment however - five days after the event and despite public outcry - there has been no official repudiation of the actual incident - the expulsion of Nuhu ribadu and his family from the graduation hall. Evidently such conduct is considered the norm within the Presidency, and the nation must prepare to witness recurrences, dedicated to the same end, no matter the variations.
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Understanding Nigeria? The Canadian conference organizers should have saved themselves the energy and expense by substituting the theme - UNDERMINING Nigeria. A single session would suffice, consisting of a report from an eye-witness directly from the scene, and a government respondent, ideally the Inspector-General of Police, or the Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies under whose watch this affront was perpetrated. Then the world would be left to form its own judgement, without the interventions of experts, analysts and other 'busybodies'. It would identify, once for all, just who consistently undermine the nation - the hidden forces, or those who openly bear witness.
The Kuru episode is not merely symptomatic or symbolic, it is summative. The last word has been spoken, and it is nothing less than an ideological pronouncement. The instigators of this event, and the silent complicity of governance, have set the seal of doom on all efforts for moral sanitization. The anti-419 labour has been rendered meaningless and hypocritical. Not that this is new knowledge, but this latest act of indecent self-expsosure identifies its perpetrators - by act or silent connivance - as the Supreme 419 Godfathers.
It is possible of course that Nuhu Ribadu has committed some unspeakable crime, and with his family as accessories, that they should all be subjected to such public indignity on a day when all this man required, as of right, was to collect his hard earned certificate. Like a loyal officer, he had accepted his posting on a 'refresher course', completed that course and was owed his diploma by the institution. For whatever else he felt were his dues, he had appropriately consigned his fate, as a law enforcement citizen, to the judiciary. However, his very presence was seen to besmirch the police escutcheon, and he was expelled from a public gathering, while his family underwent the same humiliation. Surely, their crime must have been one that makes decent citizens hold their noses.
Well then, if the crime that earned such treatment is not revealed, perhaps the public should take a hand. The public trial of his former boss, Olusegun Obasanjo may have to be shelved for a while - that is a long-term, protracted project in any case - while we tackle this public menace, Nuhu Ribadu, and place him in the dock. The government, the police and all other aggrieved citizens should be invited to appear in their own persons or send representatives so that we know, once for all, and reveal to the entire world just what 'evil genius' has lorded it over the EFCC these past years until the nation was rescued from his wiles. So far, all we have encountered have been persistent, all-engrossing efforts to protect the nation from this silent contagion. I invite civil organizations to commence preceedings to reinforce the patriotic efforts of Nuhu Ribadu's persecutors, with a civil exercise in public enlightenment.
Let us put this menace on trial!
Professor Soyinka is a Nobel Laureate in Literature
Where is Ribadu?
ReplyDeleteFrom George Oji in Kaduna, 12.05.2008
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The whereabouts of the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EF-CC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, were unknown last night.
Lagos-based evening newspaper, PM News, reported that he had fled the country with his destination unknown.
But a source told THISDAY that he was still in the country.
Ribadu, who has been in the news lately following his maltreatment at the graduation ceremony of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSSS), was said to have disappeared two nights ago following a “serious threat” to his life.
“He got a call that told him in very clear terms that he would be killed,” a source told THISDAY late last night. “Remem-ber his car was shot at just two months ago. The bullet holes are still on his car. This time around, the threat was very clear and he decided to run for his life.”
Ribadu was due to face police panel in Kaduna yesterday for sundry offences, including appearing before President Umaru Musa Yar’Adau “in mufti” when NIPSS graduating students visited the President two weeks ago and for taking police authorities to court over his demotion from the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) to Deputy Com-missioner for Police (DCP).
With his departure from the country, police sources hinted last night that he might be tried and dismissed in absentia.
If Ribadu is eventually dismissed, it would be the third in a four-step action threatened against the former EFCC chairman by a former governor, as reported by THISDAY recently.
A former governor, who is said to be very close to the President, “had threatened in December last year that Ribadu would be removed as EFCC chairman and that he would be demoted thereafter,” the source had said. “He said Ribadu would then be dismissed from the force before he is eventually jailed.”
Yesterday, he failed to appear before the Police Disciplinary Committee headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo, sitting at the Police Officers Mess, Kaduna.
Ribadu was by a police signal dated November 25 expected to appear before the panel at 8.00 am yesterday to answer to allegations of indiscipline, disregard for rules and regulations of the force and serious acts of misconduct.
The Onovo panel commenced sitting in Kaduna on Monday and had been hearing evidence of some senior police officers who had disciplinary cases to answer.
Ribadu, who was slated to appear before the committee together with other officers, had Tuesday, November 25, also failed to appear before a similar disciplinary panel at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
It was believed that the absence of Ribadu was not unconnected with the suit he filed at the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court seeking to challenge his demotion by the Police Service Commission (PSC).
On Wednesday, the former EFCC boss also instituted another action before the ECOWAS Court, Abuja, to stop the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) from arraigning him before the Force Disciplinary Committee.
He wants the court to declare IGP’s directive for him to appear before the Committee a nullity because the Police boss lacks such statutory powers and all other steps taken by the police authorities to make him appear before the Committee
In the suit instituted on his behalf by his counsel, Charles Muse, Ribadu wants the Court to declare that by the virtue of Section 253(2) of the 1999 constitution, it is only the Police Service Commission that could discipline him.
The Onovo Committee which began sitting as early as 9.30am did not wind up until 5.30pm. It was gathered that the Committee members used yesterday’s sitting in the absence of Ribadu to review the evidence and submissions from officers who had appeared before it within the week and to also compile their report.
When approached by newsmen for comments on its sitting particularly as it affected the absence of Ribadu, Committee Chairman, Onovo, declined comments, saying that it was only the IGP, Mr. Mike Okiro, who could comment on the committee’s activities.
The Deputy Force Secretary and Commissioner of Police Suleiman Abbu had on behalf of the IGP last week issued Ribadu three queries.
On Tuesday, the globally respected anti-corruption watchdog, Human Rights Watch (HRW), frowned on Nigeria’s efforts to check official corruption, linking the “falter” to “a campaign of calumny” against Ribadu, after he decided to prosecute a “powerful” former governor.
The body, in a statement issued by its Associate, Africa Division, Mr. Thomas Gilchrist, called on the Federal Government to protect Ribadu, who informed the organisation that he had been subjected to an escalating campaign of harassment, threats and an apparent attempt on his life in recent weeks.
“I fear for my life,” Ribadu told the body. “I have made a lot of enemies.”
A Metaphor Called Nuhu Ribadu
ReplyDeleteSonala Olumhense
For a moment there, someone switched on the light. Its name: Nuhu Ribadu, a fresh-faced, fire-belching policeman and lawyer.
Ribadu was armed with a gallon of kerosene and a box of matches. His avowed mission, as he was appointed Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was to incinerate corruption in Nigerian public life.
It was a mission received with deep cynicism by many Nigerians. To begin with, our nation seemed littered with powerful and entrenched thieves. For another, it was being led by a man who had his finger in many sewers himself.
How was Ribadu going to combat corruption without being pulled into one of them himself?
At the beginning, Ribadu seemed to know where he was going. He said the right things. In the West, he was celebrated as Nigeria's new hero, and his press conferences were heavily attended by journalists who knew a lot about corruption in Nigeria.
Then Ribadu walked into three historical and hysterical errors. The first was the nation's success in recovering the so-called Abacha loot. Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria for another dangerous stretch of the 1990s after it survived Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, had looted Nigeria into scandal. But he had also jailed one Olusegun Obasanjo, a man of elephantine recall.
Unfortunately for Abacha, Obasanjo returned from jail to assume leadership of Nigeria. And Obasanjo was going to make certain that no matter what region of hell Abacha was roasting in, he would remember Obasanjo as enjoying the louder guffaw.
Thus Nigeria searched the world for Abacha's loot, an endeavor that was often curiously misunderstood as the nation's battle against corruption. Still, it was an interesting game, particularly if you happened to be the first national appointed to hound "economic and financial crime."
The search for Abacha's loot was easy, partly because the man was dead, and partly because the emergence of certain new technologies, and the international political and legal climate, were in our favour. Hundreds of millions of dollars began to come in. This experience permitted many a powerful statement from Nigeria anti-corruption star.
It also led him into his second error. He failed to recognise that even for a military general such as his boss, stripping a dead soldier naked is different from confronting even a breathing civilian. And many of the civilians in play had become richer and far more devious than anything any Nigerian soldier had ever seen on Nigerian soil.
That was responsible for Ribadu's third error. Although there was enough evidence to warn him that the anti-corruption issue had reached a major milestone, he proceeded as if he did not recognise it. That milestone was to clarify that nobody was above the law.
Many Nigerians argued, in this respect, that the EFCC was being used principally against opponents of President Obasanjo. Names cited included Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Senate President Adolph Wabara, and Inspector-General of Police Tafa Balogun. Ribadu dismissed all those objections.
Asked in New York, late in 2006, about the corruption of Obasanjo and former Works and Housing Minister, Anthony Anenih, Ribadu said they were not the most corrupt people in Nigeria. He did not produce the most corrupt people in Nigeria.
A part of that may have been understandable. Perhaps the most corrupt people were some of the governors. Constitutional immunity made them strong and arrogant, and Ribadu promised immediate action as soon as they left office.
Yet, the clouds continued to gather. Presenting the Annual Report of the Commission to the National Assembly in 2006, he stated that many governors were guilty of corruption. That prompted an uproar, with the named governors calling Obasanjo or streaming into Abuja to confront him.
And what did Obasanjo do? He told the governors not to worry, that it could not be correct to say that so many of them were guilty of corruption.
And Ribadu? He did not open the files and try to convince the President he was both correct and serious. And he did not resign his appointment.
Then came May 2007 and the advent of a new government, and Ribadu failed to carry out his threat to serve misery on the corrupt governors as soon as they had handed power over to their successors. He seemed to lack the vision to see the rain in the distance, and the courage to give up the position that brought him to the attention and respect of the world.
It is this ambivalence that Ribadu is now paying for.
True, they stripped him of his EFCC position and sent him off to school. True, they are working hard to strip him of the double-promotion Obasanjo gave him as boss of the EFCC. True, they are accusing him of corruption by gluing to his hands property he never stole.
Ribadu is fighting back, and he ought to. But he is obviously no politician, because he has permitted himself to be pushed into a near-impossible corner. He must now defend his rank as Assistant Inspector-General of Police by taking steps that bring him nose to nose with the top brass of the police who must have hated his so-called anti-corruption crusade and the promotions they never enjoyed. Later this week, Ribadu awards them the opportunity to throw the rule book at him. His chances are not good.
What went wrong?
What happened is that Ribadu made the same mistake that all pseudo-revolutionaries make: revolution by installments. This is a contradiction. A revolution means that when you cross the bridge, you set fire to it. You can only advance, with no comfort expected in retreat. You do not start a "revolution" therefore, if you are in any doubt.
I know that Ribadu had constraints, but a revolution always does. The problem is that he failed revolution by installments. This is a contradiction. A revolution means that when you cross the bridge, you set fire to it. You can only advance, with no comfort expected in retreat. You do not start a "revolution" therefore, if you are in any doubt.
I know that Ribadu had constraints, but a revolution always does. The problem is that he failed to define his own side of the conflict, which was supposed to be the people of Nigeria. Instead, he defined it in terms of the government, alias Obasanjo.
As President, Obasanjo never made such lapses. His definition of the national interest was the government, and the definition of the government was Obasanjo. Ribadu thought there was a fog when there was none. Today, as Ribadu navigates the worst stretch of his life, Obasanjo is playing the role of a saviour in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is sponsoring people into President Umaru Yar'Adua's cabinet. He could save Ribadu, but why?
Despite his failures, Ribadu is the closest Nigeria has ever come to a genuine assault on corruption, and I am grateful to him. But he must understand now that he is at war, and it is a lonely business. If he has a strategy team to them, my recommendation is to negotiate freedom and disengagement with the Police Force in exchange for accepting his demotion to Commissioner. There are far worse things, just as there are many great things he can still accomplish.
Ribadu Going, going...
ReplyDeleteBy MURPHY GANAGANA, Abuja
Sunday, December 7, 2008
•Ribadu
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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His imminent exit from the Nigeria Police Force is no longer in doubt. But how it would manifest has been a waiting game. And until three days ago, feelers from the Louis Edet House headquarters of the NPF indicated that the authorities were not poised for an over-kill, but to provide him a soft-landing in the form of compulsory retirement after he had appeared before a high-powered disciplinary panel to defend himself on sundry charges of indiscipline, gross misconduct, and disobedience of lawful orders levied against him.
But the scenario that unfolded on Thursday at the Kaduna state police command officers mess, venue of his much awaited trial, eroded whatever show of compassion the police management team had intended to offer, and the curtain has closed on Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, erstwhile boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), whose fate appears to have been sealed, and has been penciled for outright dismissal from service.
Although keen observers of the Ribadu saga, including his close aides and security analysts, were in no doubt of his resolve to quit the police force which he once cherished and overtly nursed an ambition of heading, his bagging a dismissal was not on the cards.
Unfortunately, authoritative sources confided in Sunday Sun that the Adamawa state-born tough-talking cop would soon be shown the way out of the police force.
Whether Ribadu has a shocker up his sleeves propelling his unbending stance in the face of his present travails remain to be seen. In fact, his action is nothing short of a man with cojones. While other officers summoned for the trial which commenced on Tuesday in Kaduna appeared before the panel as scheduled, Ribadu failed to show up on Thurday for his celebrated trial, keeping three Deputy Inspectors General of police [DIGs], and the Force Secretary waiting at the venue till 7.pm.
However, apparently unwilling to create any loophole in the ongoing disciplinary process against the ex-EFCC boss, the panelists, comprising the DIG ‘A’ Department, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo, DIG ‘B’ Operations Department, Mr. Adedayo Adeoye, DIG ‘D’ Department, Force Criminal Investigations Department, Mr. Yusuf Haruna, and the Force Secretary, AIG Udom Ekpoudom, resolved not to leave the venue in a hurry.
Ironically, the erstwhile anti-graft czar offered neither a formal nor verbal explanation through a phone call for his absence at the session, even as unconfirmed reports indicated that he may have dragged the Federal Government before the ECOWAS Court for fear of not securing justice in the suits he had filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Sources however hinted that besides the fear of not having the chance of a fair hearing by the Police Disciplinary Board, he would not want to appear before the panel in uniform with the rank of Deputy Commissioner of police (DCP), a mandatory task he detested, more so, with the pending suit he instituted against the authorities over his two rank slash.
Dependable sources close to the panel told Sunday Sun that following his refusal to appear at the session where he was expected to defend himself as to why appropriate disciplinary action should not be taken against him for sundry acts of indiscipline, gross misconduct, and disobedience to lawful orders for which he had been issued about five queries within one month, the Board had no other option than to recommend his dismissal from the Nigeria Police Force.
Interestingly, Ribadu’s fall from the Olympian heights had been foretold just when his fortunes started undulating, but the crash came too sudden with the speed of an hurricane. Indeed, in a moment of reflection, former Inspector General of police, Alhaji Aliyu Attah, had predicted his imminent fall, saying when it eventually comes, the Adamawa state-born cop would be full of regret and lamentation.
“From the way he [Ribadu] is going, he will end up regretting his actions, he will say oh, had I known, I wouldn’t have done all these things that I did, but then, it would have been too late, because he didn’t take caution from the onset”, the ex-IGP had predicted in an exclusive chat with Daily Sun at his Asokoro, Abuja residence.
Attah’s warning came in the dying days of immediate past President Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime, which appointed him to head the EFCC in 2003, but the import manifested sooner than expected. First, Ribadu was dramatically and unceremoniously shoved aside from the anti-corruption agency, and sent to NIPSS for a one year course without formal notice. Though he protested the action, it turned out to be an exercise in futility.
Shortly thereafter, when he was yet to recover from the shock of his infamous exit from the EFCC, he was stripped of two ranks by the newly constituted board of the Police Service Commission (PSC), which rooted its action on procedural fraud allegedly perpetrated by ex-president Obasanjo while jerking him up by three ranks from Assistant Commissioner of police to Assistant Inspector General of police (AIG) within a four year span. Out of 140 officers demoted in the exercise, only Ribadu suffered a two rank slash.
Then, another blow came his way via a police wireless message originated and signed by the Deputy Inspector General of police in charge of ‘A’ Department, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo, prescribing stiff penalties for recently demoted officers who apparently out of shame, had refused to wear their uniforms with the appropriate ranks. Whether the move was targeted at Ribadu or not remains a matter of conjecture, but it came shortly after he instituted legal action against the PSC, IGP, and the Attorney General of the Federation, challenging his demotion by two ranks before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, which he prayed to declare the action as illegal and unconstitutional.
Shortly thereafter, he got a query from the police high command requesting response within a specified time, as to why punitive disciplinary action including compulsory retirement or outright dismissal from service should not be taken against him for dragging his employers and the Federal Government of Nigeria to court in breach of public service regulations. He is also to explain why he embarked on litigation without seeking and obtaining permission from the IGP in accordance with engagement and conduct rules of the Nigeria police force.
He was yet to file his response when he got additional two queries over his disobedience to a directive requesting all the six police officers who participated in the Senior Course 30 at the NIPSS to report to the force headquarters on graduation from the elite institute, and for appearing before the Vice President for the presentation ceremony in mufti.
Tempers rose to a boiling point among members of the Police Management Team (PMT), when Ribadu penultimate Tuesday, ignored yet another directive by the authorities to appear before the Force Secretary, Mr. Udom Ekpoudom, an Assistant Inspector General of police (AIG), for briefing.
Dependable sources told Sunday Sun that despite being notified of the directive to report to the Force Secretary through a Deputy Commissioner of police in his department, Ribadu did not show up and gave no explanation for his failure to do so.
Part of the reasons for his being summoned, sources said, was to warn him to immediately report to his new office at the Zone 5 police command headquarters in Benin city, Edo state, where he had been redeployed as Deputy Commissioner of police in charge of Administration.
Ribadu goes underground
ReplyDeleteBy Tony Amokeodo and John Alechenu
Published: Tuesday, 9 Dec 2008
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former Chairman of the EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu
The former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, may have gone underground, investigation by our correspondents has revealed.
The decision, a source on Monday disclosed, was to safeguard his life and enable him pursue his legal action against the Nigeria Police Force and the Police Service Commission to a logical conclusion.
Ribadu is challenging the propriety of his demotion from the post of an Assistant Inspector-General of Police to that of Deputy Commissioner of Police at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
He had also filed another legal action at the ECOWAS Court in Abuja to contest the directive of the Inspector -General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, to appear before a police disciplinary panel in Kaduna last week.
Ribadu had urged the ECOWAS Court to hold that the outcome of the panel’s sitting would infringe on his fundamental human rights. He did not appear before the panel which concluded its sitting on Thursday.
Anxiety had mounted over his whereabouts throughout the weekend, especially following a report by a Lagos-based evening newspaper that he might have fled the country, and the indication that he might be considering seeking asylum abroad as one of his options.
But a source close to the former EFCC boss told one of our correspondents in Lagos on Monday that Ribadu was still in the country and was observing the sallah holidays underground in his home town, Yola, Adamawa State.
He added that his decision to stay out of the limelight might not be unconnected with the recent threat to his life by certain individuals whom he claimed shot at his car on his way to Abuja recently.
Our source said, ” I can confidently tell you that Ribadu is in the country and he is taking his time in view of the unfolding events.
“He has not fled the country and he has no reason to do so, contrary to the rumour engineered by some ex-governors and a few serving governors that he had absconded. But don‘t forget that the threat to his life is real and that is why he has chosen to remain incommunicado to some of his friends and associates.
“He has decided to go underground in order to save his life. Please note that it is only when he is alive that he can pursue his pending cases. Only the living can pursue matters in court and he is not prepared to take chances.
“For your information, certain people with sinister motives have been trailing him.
“And for him, being security conscious, he has alerted the country that his life is no longer safe. That is a serious issue that calls for concern.
“We are confident that the courts will make a fair pronouncement on his cases and we believe in the ability of the judiciary to do what is right in this situation.”
When asked why calls made to Ribadu‘s phones were not going through, he replied that the measure was meant to protect his privacy and his present location.
He added that he could not disclose the exact location where Ribadu would be spending his sallah break for security reasons.
Meanwhile, a former Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, has faulted the constitution of a panel by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, to try Ribadu for an alleged “gross misconduct.”
In the same vein, he said if he were Ribadu, he would have since resigned from the police instead of remaining in the force to face further humiliation.
Tsav made his position known in a text message sent to one of our correspondents in Abuja on Monday.
The message reads in part, “By law, the Inspector-General of Police has no power to set up a board to try an officer of the rank of an Assistant Superintendent of Police and above.
“Such power is only vested in the PSC. The IG, however, has power to order investigation of any grade of officer before forwarding his findings and recommendations to the PSC for appropriate disciplinary action.
“The panel set up to investigate the officer has the power to summon the officer and the officer is bound to attend.”
According to him, Ribadu was only compounding his problems by choosing to remain in the force to fight on.
He said, “Ribadu may be retired or dismissed in the long run for conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline. I cannot see him winning. He is being misled by people who have gained, and are gaining from him.”
Going down memory lane, the former police chief said, “The late E. Ugowe, a mature and experienced Police officer, fought the police, but in a civilised manner.
“He had to throw in the towel in the end when he realised that he was subject to Force discipline. If I were him (Ribadu), I would resign rather than hang on and cry over spilled milk.”
[Print
Ribadu: Onovo C'ttee recommends dismissal
ReplyDeleteWritten by Kingsley Omonobi
Tuesday, 09 December 2008
IMMEDIATE past Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, may be on his way out of the Police if the authorities accept the recommendation of the Police Force Disciplinary Committee that he be dismissed for alleged indiscipline.
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Mallam Ribadu last week failed to honour the invitation of the committee to answer allegations of indiscipline in Kaduna.
Police sources told Vanguard yesterday that the recommendation of the DIG Ogbona Onovo led committee which worked throughout yesterday’s Sallah holiday was submitted last night to the Inspector-General of Police and that Okiro is expected to approve the recommendation, and submit the report to the Police Service Commission tomorrow.
Ribadu was among about 100 Police officers from the 36 states of the federation invited to appear before the disciplinary committee on allegations of disobedience to the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mike Okiro.
His offences include failure to dress in his police uniform on the day of graduation from NIPSS, and when the Course 30 participants in NIPSS visited President Umaru Yar’Adua at Aso Rock Villa.
He was also alleged to have refused to report at Zone 5 headquarters, Benin City where he was posted as the Deputy Commissioner in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department.
Thirty five other Police officers including an AIG (rtd), in charge of Communications at Force Headquarters, attended the Disciplinary Committee’s sitting in Kaduna which sat from Monday 1st to Friday 5, December 2008.
DIG Ogbona Onovo, Chairman of the FDC; DIG Adedayo Adeoye, DIG Operations; DIG John Ahmadu; DIG Gadzali Lawal; DIG Haruna Yusuf, Force Criminal Investigations Department; and AIG Udom Ekpoudom, Force Secretary were all at the FDC sitting except DIG Uba Ringim who is in Mecca for holy pilgrimage.
Vanguard had reported Thursday that the committee dispatched a signal to the former EFCC boss and he was expected to appear in his uniform before the disciplinary committee.
On whether he acknowledged receiving the signal and if he gave a commitment that he would appear before the committee, police sources said only the committee could answer that question but that Ribadu is in possession of the signal just like other police officers invited to appear before it.
Contacted on the matter, force spokesman, Mr Agberibie Akpobie, said the force disciplinary committee was a standing committee which was not set up because of Ribadu, pointing out that “as a senior police officer, if he has any case to answer, it is mandatory for him to appear before the committee and defend himself.”
The Force PRO had also dismissed allegation by Ribadu that his life was being threatened, saying if the allegation was true, Ribadu knew what to do and the right procedure to go about it.
“Has he laid any complaint with a police station and nothing was done? He has to lay a complaint at a police station nearest to him,” he said.
Emphasizing that Ribadu knew what step to take to protect himself as a police officer, the FPRO asked: who is threatening Ribadu’s life and for what reason? Has he committed any offence, and if so, who has he reported to?”
Ribadu's plight may worsen Nigeria's graft rating, says Transparency
ReplyDeleteFrom Kelechi Okoronkwo, Abuja
AN international anti-corruption organisation, the Transparency International (TI) yesterday warned that Nigeria's Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which improved in 2008, might drop in the next rating if the country continues alleged persecution of anti-corruption crusaders.
The TI specifically accused the government of harassing the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, stating that such actions meted out to Ribadu could worsen the country's corruption rating.
The Secretary-General of Transparency in Nigeria (TN), an affiliate of the TI, Mr. Osita Ogbu, gave the warning in Abuja yesterday while releasing this year's Bribe Payers' Index (BPI) to mark the world anti-corruption day.
The 2008 TI rating on BPI showed that Belgium and Canada were the highest bribe-giving countries among the 22 countries sampled. Below Belgium and Canada with 8.8 points are as follows: Netherlands 8.7, Switzerland 8.7, Germany 8.6, United Kingdom 8.6, Japan 8.6, Austria 8.5, France, Singapore and United States of America are in the same bracket of 8.1 points.
At the rear is Russia with 5.9 points. Ahead Russia are China 6.5, Mexico 6.6, India 6.8 while South Africa, South Korea and Taiwan came 14th position with 7.5 points.
Nigeria is not on the list because it is not recognised as a country, which operates multinational investments and could not be listed among countries, which pay bribes to make ways for their businesses in foreign countries.
On Ribadu, Ogbu said: "Transparency in Nigeria is concerned about the persecution of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the immediate past chairman of the EFCC. He was removed from the office in controversial circumstances. His removal from office was painful because it takes unusual commitment, zeal and courage to achieve the feat that the EFCC achieved under the chairmanship of Ribadu. The manner of his removal calls for questions on the independence of the EFCC.
"His removal from office was followed by his demotion from the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) to the Deputy Commissioner of Police on allegation of having been wrongly promoted. We are aware that under Nigerian civil service rules, there is room for accelerated promotion for exceptional performance. And the authorities of the Nigeria Police have had occasion to reward their men and officers with accelerated promotion for exceptional performance.
"Though other people were demoted with Ribadu, this is the widely held perception that Ribadu was the target. Recently, Ribadu was harassed and ridiculed during the graduation ceremony of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies."
Ogbu noted that although public servants would be held accountable for their actions while in office, there were unseen hands frustrating the anti-corruption war in the country.
"It is a matter that we should take seriously that people who have siphoned billions of Naira of the public fund have been allowed to continue having their liberty, some are even holding public offices. Their cases have been reduced to a playboy affair. It is not the culture of the Transparency International to name names but their names are often published in the papers. They are not looking for them.
"What happened in Jos recently shows that we have not learnt anything and that we have not forgotten anything either. Why should elections in the country be a do-or-die affair? It is because the people going there are not going to serve. The salary of public servants in Nigeria is almost the least in the world while the wages for politicians are the highest in the world. That is why people are fighting to get to power at all costs.
"Transparency in Nigeria calls on the Federal Government to take steps to stop the harassment, intimidation, ridiculing and persecution of Nuhu Ridadu as these actions are scaring anti-corruption war in the country," Ogbu added.
Among the issues the TI wants the Nigerian government to engage speedily are the investigation and prosecution of the people involved in the reported multinational companies bribery, implementation of the United Nations verdict on convention against corruption, trial of former governors accused of corruption.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri on Monday expressed her resolve to continue the anti-corruption fight.
Ribadu’s travails, discouragement to zealous Police officers —Senate panel
ReplyDeleteWritten by Emmanuel Aziken
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
...says Ribadu deserved promotions for dreading where we all feared
Ongoing travail of the erstwhile Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu will discourage the fight against corruption by otherwise committed officers in the Police, the Senate panel on anti-corruption has said.
Commenting on the continuing travail of Mallam Ribadu, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption Senator Sola Akinyede said his (Ribadu’s) effort in piloting the anti-graft war from zero merited the double promotion he received.
While asserting that Ribadu was never perfect in his efforts, the Committee chair nevertheless said that a stop to the perceived persecution of the erstwhile anti-graft czar would send the required message that the war against corruption was on course.
He spoke against the background of what he described as the continuing humiliation of Ribadu as highlighted by his double demotion and disciplinary actions employed against him.
“The message that we are sending to Nigerians in the rank and file of the Police Force is that if you take it upon yourself to fight corruption with single mindedness and take on influential people in society it is that you will be humiliated, pursued relentlessly and decimated,” Akinyede said.
“Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was not perfect, he is a human being but there is no doubt that he dared where many of us feared with his unprecedented contribution to the war on corruption. And I am happy that with regards to his travails at NIPSS that the Federal Government thought it wise to ask that his certificate be given to him.”
“However, I consider it that in view of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu’s contribution not by deepening the anti-corruption fight because there was nothing to deepen when he came, but because he rediscovered the anti-corruption war and took it to a level hitherto unknown in this country, I believe that in view of that I respectfully urge the Police Service Commission and the hierarchy of the Nigeria Police to go a step further and review the decision to demote Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.”
Noting that Ribadu’s promotions were recognitions for his efforts, he said:
“He did not promote himself and if as it is being alleged that due process was not followed, his tremendous and ground breaking contribution has earned him a ratification of that promotion by the relevant authorities. Ratification is proper and is possible within the ambit of the rule of law and once you ratify it, it means that whatever action you are ratifying is deemed to have been rectified and this offers an opportunity to send the right signal that we are still serious about the war against corruption.”
Dismissing agitations that Ribadu should not be singled out for commendation, he said:
“The war against corruption is not about one man, I agree, but why is that one man being pursued even after he has left the place?"
Concluding that the perceived anti-Ribadu war was a distraction for the EFCC, he said:
“What is happening is even a distraction for the EFCC itself because you find that it is putting the EFCC on the defensive. But what I can see is that it is the hierarchy of the Nigeria Police Force and the Police Service Commission because Nuhu Ribadu is no longer in the EFCC.”
Ribadu makes surprise visit to EFCC headquarters
ReplyDeleteBy Olayinka Oyebode
Published: Friday, 12 Dec 2008
Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, made a surprise visit to the Abuja headquarters of the anti-graft agency on Thursday.
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Photo file
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu
In what is apparently a new twist to his travails, the former EFCC boss, stormed the headquarters of the organisation unannounced.
He, however, had some discussions with the new Director of Operations, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin, a Deputy commissioner of police, and the agency’s Chief Security Officer.
Ribadu, our correspondent learnt, was told by the EFCC officials that he would be contacted whenever his presence was required.
When contacted earlier, the EFCC‘s Head of Media, Mr. Femi Babafemi, had told our correspondent that he was not aware of Ribadu‘s visit to the office.
He had promised to get back to our correspondent as soon as he got wind of the visit.
Meanwhile, Ribadu has said that he will neither resign from the Nigeria Police nor succumb to the injustice of his demotion.
The former EFCC boss also debunked his reported flight from the country, saying that he had only chosen to go underground for ‘personal reasons’ and to enjoy some private moments.
Ribadu, who spoke with our correspondent in an interview on Thursday, said there was nothing unusual about his current tribulations adding that many Nigerians had gone through similar travails in the past.
He , however, said that he had left everything in God‘s hands and hoped that the rule of law would prevail.
He said it was important for him to be more careful about his personal security and safety.
Ribadu admitted that there might be a grand design to compel him to resign from the force, but insisted that he would rather allow the court to decide his fate than to resign.
Ribadu said, ”I have not been out of the country and I don‘t intend to be needlessly. I went underground for personal reasons. I just wanted to be alone and enjoy some private moments.
”What I have done is to leave everything in God‘s hands and allow the rule of law to prevail. But I won’t be careless about my security and personal safety.
”I know my adversaries won’t reject the law. They might get me dismissed, but what can I do? I won’t dignify them with a resignation or accept the injustice of the demotion. I will allow the court to decide.
”It is not about now, but for posterity. It might take a while but we will see what God can do. This is about our tomorrow and the need to have a few Nigerians to stand up and be counted for a good cause, it is not about me.”
NLC Cautions Against Humiliating Ribadu
ReplyDeleteBy Innocent Oweh Correspondent, Abuja
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has observed that the current travails of the immediate past Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, would embolden corrupt public officials rather than help the campaign against graft in the country.
NLC, in a statement by its Acting President, Peters Adeyemi, in Abuja, said alleged persecution of the former EFCC helmsman would demoralise other anti-graft agencies as well as undermine the commitment of other public officials in government to continue with the fight against corruption.
According to Adeyemi, the development will inevitably create a perception by the public that the government is ready to aid suspected corrupt politicians to punish those who have fought against corruption.
"Aside from having a serious implication on the prospect of good governance in the country, NLC is firmly of the view that this development is not in the interest of government nor in the government's long term commitment to fight corruption in the country."
UK Denies Ribadu Asylum
ReplyDelete*Faces Suspension For Rejecting Posting
By Rotimi Akinwumi (Abuja) and Austin Oboh (Lagos)
Nuhu Ribadu was last week denied asylum by the United Kingdom, which did not see why he should be granted protection either because of his disagreement with his police bosses or his travails as former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman.
Police sources said he sneaked into London to seek political asylum but drew a blank from the British authorities.
"Ribadu had earlier gone to the ECOWAS court, presumably preparatory to the asylum application, saying he felt greatly endangered.
"He told the UK authorities that he no longer felt safe and that his life was threatened. He also hinted that there was a government plan to poison him," the source recounted.
It was learnt that the British authorities asked him to return to Nigeria and defend himself as he has nothing to hide.
To raise the stakes for him, he may be issued a query next Monday by Inspector General of Police (IG), Mike Okiro, if he fails to report in Edo State where he was expected to have assumed duty as Deputy Police Commissioner (DCP) on December 1.
Ribadu is currently challenging in court his demotion from the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) by the Police Service Commission (PSC).
However, a police source stressed on Monday that "the rules state that any serving police officer must seek and obtain the permission of the IG before suing the police as an institution over any grievance. This Ribadu did not do.
"There is no official record attached to Ribadu's name or his file in the police to show that he is engaged in a legal battle with his employers, therefore, it is taken that he is currently observing his 21 days' grace within which he is expected to report for duty.
"If he does not report at his duty post by Sunday, he will be queried. I tell you authoritatively that his AIG is in constant touch with the IG, who has reported to the IG that Ribadu is yet to report to him, to assume duty as directed."
The source explained that he will not be declared a deserter as speculated in the media though he could be recommended for suspension.
According to police rules, any officer below the rank of Inspector can be declared a deserter 21 days after failing to report for duty.
A query by the IG is what officers from the rank of Inspector get for the same offence, which also requires that recommendations for discipline are forwarded to the PSC for implementation.
Weeks after the event, the police authorities are still disputing claims that Ribadu was forced out of the graduation at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru.
They maintain that he walked out of the venue of the event in protest when he saw that his rank in the programme booklet was DCP.
They seek proof that he was molested at the venue of the event, and have noted the absence of any photograph or video depicting this, despite the large number of photographers and cameramen at the occasion.
Ribadu's superiors are yet to hear from him two weeks after he was issued a query asking him to bring the Jeep in which he travelled between Abuja and Jos, during which he said he came under fire in an attempt to assassinate him.
He was also asked to explain how he was attacked in order to facilitate investigation of the incident
On the persecution of Ribadu
ReplyDeleteWritten by Femi Ajayi
Saturday, 13 December 2008
Ribadu could be a victim of circumstance who in all honesty did according to the dictates of his boss (Obasanjo) with good intentions. His work was applauded by most Nigerians, especially from abroad, and by most world leaders. Through his good work, Nigeria was removed from the black books of most of the developed countries that in the past treated the country as a pariah.
EFCC was set up in good faith to sanitize the country of corruption and other financial crimes; it was also set up with the good intention to minimize at least, if not eliminate, corruption in the Nigerian society. But we could only minimize corruption by enacting stringent anti-corruption laws that will be enforced by the relevant agencies like EFCC and ICPC. Corruption is in the vein of every human being. If we are to analyze the import of corruption, we would find out that no one in human flesh is a saint.
However, the challenges faced by operators of the EFCC were some of their approaches were wrong because it was mostly influenced and dictated from above. It is true that the EFCC intervention was needed in Nigeria at that point in time but the way it was used as a ‘bull dog’ against those against the Government then was where the challenge was for the operatives of the agency.
Most people will expect that the new administration of President Yar’adua would reason and understand the circumstances that surrounded Ribadu’s operations during that time. But what happened to Ribadu when the new administration came into being in 2009 left most Nigerians asking whether the current administration’s approach on Ribadu’s case were uncivilized. Here was a devoted Nigerian who made sacrifices to give Nigeria a clean slate on corruption among the countries of the world and the new administration continues to treat him like an outcast. He is, to say the least, treated as an ingrate.
Yar’adua’s administration is not following the wordings of the National Anthem. We don’t hail Nigeria for wrong. However, encouraging compatriots to answer the call when asked to serve in rebuilding the country should be the way to go for Nigerians.
The first action taken on Ribadu was to enlist him for a mandatory course so as to create room for stopping the investigation of those that put Nigeria on the world list as one of the most corrupt countries in the world as a result of the nonchalant attitude of the Nigerian public servants to public trust. Nigerians at home and abroad cried to the government not to remove him as EFCC boss. The government denied Ribadu’s removal and said he would be back as EFCC chairman after the completion of his course at Kuru, Jos.
While at National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), a new EFCC boss was appointed. Nigeria’s loud cry to heaven did not move the steeled government. However, our guts feeling was that the Nigerian Attorney General, who was alleged to be the lawyer to some of those with cases to answer before the EFCC, would do anything to ensure Ribadu’s removal from office.
Shortly before the completion of his course at NIPPS, Nuhu Ribadu was demoted from Assistant Inspector General of Police to Deputy Commissioner of Police. Ribadu, a trained lawyer, challenged the decision of the Police Commission in court. Unfortunately the Police do not take it kindly with him. There were already moves by the EFCC to invite Ribadu to answer to allegations of corruption against him.
The type of humiliation meted to Ribadu at his graduation for refusing to wear the demoted police uniform rank could be described as jungle justice. As a result of his demotion from Assistant Inspector General to Deputy Commissioner of Police, he refused to wear the Police uniform as he is supposed to for the graduation ceremony; it was the same way he appeared in Aso Rock with his colleagues a couple of weeks earlier. But all the same it does not justify humiliating him in the presence of his family members, friends and well wishers; he was whisked away like a common criminal. Nigeria must oppose such acts by our law enforcement agents.
Stopping the young man from graduating and posting him to a desk work in Edo State, added with his demotion and his removal from the EFCC is nothing short of unfair. This is not how he should be paid for working assiduously for his fatherland. Nigerians need some serious apology from the individuals that acted in such a barbaric manner, as the Presidency has denied giving any directive for the perpetration of the act.
Haba! Is this the country where no one should be oppressed? Is this the country where compatriots should rise up to defend the country? Is this the country that calls itself the Giant of Africa? Is this the country that has produced the best intellectuals for the rest of the world to tap from? Is this the country of Awolowo, Balewa, and Azikiwe’s dream? Is this the country where those abroad would like to return with their children to make their contributions? Is this the country that has done so much to keep and maintain peace all across Africa? Is this the country that claims to be the most religious country in the world?
Still more it is pertinent to ask if this is how Yar’Adua wants to establish more robust bilateral relations between Nigeria and the United States of America, and more productive partnership between Africa and the United States of America in the quest for a more stable, secure, just and equitable world. What a country!
Where I always have some concerns about Nigerians is in their not being objective in reacting to some issues at hand. It is unfair to Ribadu that he be treated so shabbily because he worked under a president who used him for political ends. It is ironic and painful to hear some people say he got what he deserved because of the ways and manners he handled those under EFCC investigations during his tenure at the commission. I do not think it is proper that a Nigerian lawyer of SAN status should think that the humiliation of Ribadu was lawful because he has to be “served his own cup of coffee”.
Does that mean because you worked for a certain government agency in Nigeria you should not seek redress of your fundamental human rights or you should give up your rights as human being when your rights are being violated? Ribadu’s family should have been spared the discomfiture. I will say this again: disrupting Ribadu’s graduation stinks to the highest heavens.
It bogs down to what is killing the country: if your chicken spills my coffee, I’ll break its eggs. I will like to stress that we are all humans and no one is a perfect being. But those that step forward and make sacrifices should be acknowledged
There is no denying that Ribadu changed the course of handling cases of corruption in Nigeria. Unfortunately for him, Ribadu’s work implicated the most powerful, those secret caucuses of Nigeria who became overnight billionaires from public service. It is the height of ingratitude for any Nigerian to say that Ribadu has to have a taste of what he did to some Nigerians.
If the Presidency denied any knowledge of the move to humiliate Ribadu, it means there is a big dent in Yar’Adua’s administration. There are some holes he has to plug in his administration. It looks like anyone can do whatever he or she pleases especially under the disguise of Rule of Law.
The barbaric acts of the Nigeria Police and other security agencies in Nigeria seem to be perpetrated without accompanying censor or punishment. This brazen acts cut across the Navy, the Army, and the paramilitary forces from all across the country. Recently a Naval officer watched as his boys brutalized a young lady for refusing to give way to his convoy in the busy Lagos traffic.
Nigeria should be a country where highly devoted Nigerians should be encouraged to serve their fatherland for the generations yet unborn. The rule of law of the President does not seem to affect Nigeria law enforcement agencies. The President might have to swerve his rule of law policy to that direction.
Ajayi writes from Lagos
Ribadu: Lagos Publisher gets police protection
ReplyDelete…Receives death threats over story on ex-EFCC boss
By IKENNA EMEWU
Monday, December 22, 2008
•Photo: Sun News Publishing
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As issues and controversy surrounding the former EFCC boss, Nuhu Ribadu, keep widening daily with further dimensions, the police high command has moved to protect a Lagos publisher said to have been innaundated with threat calls over a story her magazine published on the embattled former EFCC boss.
The move is coming on the heels of a petition by Mrs. Janet Mba-Afolabi, publisher of Scroll Magazine, to the Inspector-General of Police, alleging that there has been serious threat to her life by callers who claim they act for the former EFCC boss over a story the medium published about Ribadu.
Although Mrs. Mba-Afolabi says she has no way of telling if indeed the crank callers are not just dropping the name of beleaguered former anti-corruption czar, she insists the calls are serious enough for her to take action.
Similarly, Daily Sun gathered, the decision of the police High command to provide the publisher with some form of security is informed by a larger national interest, and not necessarily because of any conviction that Ribadu would threaten the life of anybody.
According to a senior police source who spoke to Daily Sun on the development, if anything untoward happened to the journalist, the temptation would be for people to hold the Yar’Adua government responsible, especially as the said publication has always been critical of government.
In her petition, the publisher said that one of the callers who called with a 070… line claimed even to be the Deputy Commissioner of Police with a message that she is no longer safe for publishing a piece on the cop with claims that he amassed wealth whose source is suspect as EFCC chief.
Mba-Afolabi stated that “we published a story on the cover of our ---- edition of the news magazine after detailed investigation on Ribadu. The story had details according to the documents available to us, showing the wealth acquisition of the former crime-buster.
“The details included houses allegedly acquired by the former EFCC boss or bought for him by a powerful businessman who offered him that mansion as compensation for a favour of import waiver.”
Magazine copies mopped up
The publisher noted that immediately the magazine hit the newsstand, some unknown persons got to work, swooping on the publication and mopping it off circulation. When a second batch of the publication was issued, the same mop-up was repeated, but this time with a more daring threat on the publishing house and the publisher of danger to their lives if they don’t desist from further plans to circulate the magazine.
Wanted dead
“It did not stop at that, as my lines were bombarded with series of calls from persons who claimed they acted for Ribadu. Most of the calls came in undisclosed numbers with the exception of two calls – one a GSM 070… number the other a land line 0980.. series.
“Sir, what I cannot substantiate is whether the calls actually came from Ribadu or people he directed to do so, but what is paramount is that these calls could not cease and there have been suspicious movements and enquiries around my office and residence by strange persons about me. Presently, I feel there is real danger around me and ask for the protection of the police as I would not watch and see danger catch up with me”.
The journalist who sought police protection and also an investigation to find out the actual identities of the callers and the validity of their threats said she is no longer safe “as my life is now in real danger. I am sure the story carried by the magazine is authentic, well investigated and factual. We have documented evidences as proof without which it would have been irresponsible journalism to go to press with the story.
“As I urge you to afford me protection before it would be too late, I also ask that you find these persons and call them to order as there are procedures for redress in the law for someone who feels injured by a publication. The courts are there for litigation, and I think that would be a civil option to settling scores rather than a resort to bestial and lawless self-help of threats and hanging around me,” she pleaded.
She said she wrote the petition for record purposes, as she is not empowered by the law to provide herself protection. “It is the duty of the police to handle issues like this, and that is why I seek your intervention in the matter.”
The publisher told Okiro that such antics still being the order in a democracy is like an attempt to rubbish the efforts of President Umaru Yar’Adua and his administration to enthrone justice and the respect for the rule of law.
“Should the need arise, I would not hesitate to forward my complaint to Mr. President because if the media can longer play its constitutional role in this society, that means someone is somewhere angling to tarnish the reputation of this government in instilling order in Nigeria,” she said.
‘What we published’
Scroll had scrolled out that Ribadu got the house in issue here from the business mogul “as a gift and a token of appreciation for an import waiver for importation of cement and other goods. But funny enough Theta and Vaswani brothers who allegedly committed the same offence were arrested and punished for allegedly refusing to play ball with the same government that Ribadu served.
But Ribadu had denied owning any house outside Nigeria and has deared the present administration in the EFCC to seize such a property wherever they see it. So far, several months after that initial claim, no house has been announced as having been seized from him.
According to scroll, intelligence report strongly highlighted that the former administration where Ribadu served as EFCC chief gave him an oil block, which fetches him $3 million every month as compensation for his prowess in the anti-corruption war and for being a faithful servant to his paymaster and the nation. Sources said since Ribadu's battle with the police began, some N50 million was provided for some outspoken rights groups to mobilize support for him as a faithful anticorruption warrior undergoing persecution by a cabal he had brought to book while serving as EFCC chairman. But the money is said to be causing war within their ranks as a faction believes the entire amount was not declared.
The magazine also dug into the Emmanuel Nwude case, where it reported that a certain big man in EFCC was using the suspect’s Lexus Jeep for four months, with the understanding that during the auctioning of Nwude’s seized property, the anti-corruption commission will help in securing same for the suspect. The agreement was breached when Nwude requested his Jeep back. So much money was collected from Nwude that he threatened to sue if Ribadu does not leave him alone. The scroll claimed it might have been as a result of this threat that many of Nwude's properties were returned to him.
More Scroll details
Ribadu was always referred to as police officer who is determined to stop corruption until two Abuja-based lawyers, who filed a suit to challenge his tenure in EFCC raised the claim the first time that Ribadu bought four bedroom mansion located at the Palm Jumerah Beach Area of Dubai. According to the suit, the price tag of the mansion is $4.8 million. The lawyers did not stop at that, they have gone to court to compel Ribadu to explain to Nigerians how he came about such amount of money. More laughable is the property allegedly acquired by Ribadu at Abuja.
He had told those who cared to listen that his father-in-law bought the house for him as a gift, but security report reveals that the said father-in-law had no house of his own, therefore, it would be unthinkable for him to have given such present when he has none. "Where would a Vice-Chancellor get such money to buy a house?" asked the source.
The publication said more damning things that ran into six pages and this may have really angered some persons, even, outside Ribadu to draw blood
Police dismiss Nuhu Ribadu
ReplyDeleteFawehinmi, Balarabe Musa, others condemn action
From Terhemba Daka (Abuja), Bertram Nwannekanma and Samson Ezea (Lagos)
THE long-drawn drama between the Nigeria Police Force and one of its own, erstwhile Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, hit the ultimate yesterday when the Force announced his sack. His guilt sheet read gross indiscipline, insubordination and Absence from Duty Without Leave (AWOL).
But Ribadu's lawyer, Charles Musa, has described the dismissal as a "flagrant abuse of the Constitution, disregard of judicial process and a mockery of the rule of law" which will be challenged in court.
The full text read: "We have received with great disbelief the purported dismissal of our client, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, from the Nigeria Police Force.
"We want to put on record that this is an act of flagrant abuse of the Constitution, disregard of judicial process and a mockery of the rule of law.
"The decision will be challenged in the court of law. It is our belief that justice would be done in the matter.
Nuhu Ribadu was among six senior police officers nominated and sent on Senior Executive Course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos. He had been elevated to the rank of Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) and hence qualified for the course.
But while on course, the Police Service Commission (PSC) said it was inundated with petitions on illegal and unauthorised promotions carried out in the Force.
The commission revisited the promotion exercise, after which 139 officers, including Ribadu, who were allegedly wrongfully promoted, were downgraded to their appropriate ranks.
Announcing the dismissal at a press briefing in Abuja yesterday, Deputy Force Secretary, Suleiman Abba, a Commissioner of Police, said Ribadu's conduct was inimical to the enforcement of discipline in the Police, created disharmony among officers and encouraged indiscipline among members of the Force.
He said: "Nuhu Ribadu's case is not and has not been the only instance where officers have been reduced in ranks in the history of Nigeria Police Force and hell was not let loose.
"Surprisingly, Malam Nuhu Ribadu took the path of indiscipline, confrontation and destruction never known before in the Force, forgetting that discipline is the bedrock upon which the Force rests. Unlike the path taken by his other colleagues whose promotions were also withdrawn and have been performing their duties without acrimony, he refused to accept his fate or seek for redress of any perceived injustice in the appropriate manner."
Abba also cited Ribadu's misconduct to include improper dressing by appearing in plain- clothes while on official courtesy visit to Mr. President on November 13, 2008 with other NIPSS course participants, institution of legal proceedings against the IGP, AGF and the Police Service Commission on October 2, 2008 at the Federal High Court, Lagos, without proper authority, and described it as a "conduct prejudicial to discipline, proper administration of the Force and unbecoming of the officer contrary to sections 352 and 367 of the Police Act."
The Deputy Force Secretary disclosed that the former EFCC boss also instituted legal proceedings against the EFCC and the Attorney-General of the Federation contrary to the Police Act and the Public Service Rules 2006.
He noted that the action was to forestall the directives given to him to meet with the request of the EFCC chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, with regards to hand over to her official documents in his possession, adding that "the officer flagrantly refused to obey the order and directives of the IGP to report in the office of the IGP on November 24, 2008 along with his NIPSS course mates at the completion of their studies."
"Similarly, the officer failed to obey the order and directives to the effect that he should report at the office of The Force Secretary on November 25, 2008 where he was to be advised to report to the Chairman of the EFCC as earlier directed," Abba added.
Speaking further, he said Ribadu also instituted legal proceedings against the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the Community Court of Justice of ECOWAS, Abuja, on December 2, 2008. This, according to Abba, was after he disregarded his posting order and refused to proceed on transfer when he was posted to Zone 5 Benin as DCP in charge of administration since November 2008.
The secretary added that the former EFCC boss refused to avail himself of the opportunity given to defend himself of all the charges before a disciplinary committee which sat on December 4 2008 in Kaduna and also failed to report before the committee when he was given another chance to appear at its December 12 sitting in Abuja.
He said Ribadu's whereabouts are still unknown which amount to desertion of the Police Force, adding that in such circumstances of desertion, the law provides that it is at the discretion of the Commissioner of Police to arrest such a deserter and charge him to court.
Abba, who refused to entertain questions from reporters, disclosed that the PSC met and considered the presentation made to it by the IGP on the recommendation of the Force Disciplinary Committee (FDC).
"At the end of the deliberation, the commission dismissed the officer from the Force for acts of gross indiscipline, insubordination and absence from duty", stressing that no single individual is more than the country's national security.
Ribadu's relationship with the Service had been low ever since his removal from the EFCC chair and posting to NIPSS for the one-year course. It turned soured the more when he was demoted. Still, he went to court to challenge his demotion by the Police, and to request that the status quo be maintained until the determination of the suit.
In all this, insinuations were rife that his travails had to do with his conduct of the EFCC powers he wielded while he reigned and those who had an axe to grind with him were out to cut him to size.
Nevertheless, managing his official affairs with his bosses at the Police High Command was another matter. On three occasions, Ribadu has been invited by the Inspector-General of Police to the Police Headquarters to clarify certain cloudy matters and on all occasions, the former EFCC chairman has shunned the invitation.
But the Ribadu saga reached a climax recently, at the graduation ceremony of NIPSS, where he was humiliated by security agents who forcibly removed him from the venue.
As expected, this action sparked an outcry from many quarters in Nigeria with fears that the methods of the Gestapo are now being adopted by the Yar'Adua Administration.
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has since ordered that Nuhu Ribadu's NIPSS certificate be handed over to him, having duly completed his course of study. Following the completion of his course at NIPSS, the Police Command also posted him to Zone 5 Police Command Headquarters in Benin City, Edo State, as a Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Administration.
However, mixed reactions have trailed Ribadu's dismissal.
In a terse statement, the right activist and lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi said Ribadu's dismissal "is clearly the act of an evil, lawless and corrupt government."
Speaking to The Guardian on the development, President, Campaign for Democracy (CD), Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said the action was a flagrant violation of rule of law as being preached by President Yar Adua, noting that Ribadu is already in court challenging his demotion.
In his reaction, Mr. Emeka Ngige (SAN) described the development as not surprising, going by the way the event has taken place before now when they removed him from office on the excuse that he is going for a course.
"What the government is doing to him is unfair, unjust and unconstitutional. On the other hand, what is happening is a manifestation of "use and dump" policy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government. It is a manifestation of Nemesis and lesson for those in position of authority," he said.
To Chief Ebenezer Babatope, the development is interesting as he said that if they sacked him because of the work he did in EFCC, it is not fair, but if they sacked him because of what he did in the Police, they should supply Nigerians with evidence.
In his reaction, Mike Igini, a lawyer and public affairs analyst, told The Guardian that it is heart-touching for a man who risked everything to fight corruption to be treated like this by some cabal in government.
President, Transparency International, General, Ishola William (rtd), commended the action of the Police Service Commission, arguing that Ribadu as service officer flouted the rules and regulations of the force.
"There are procedures within the force to seek redress and Ribadu failed to follow them, rather he rushed to court. Now that he is dismissed, he can now go to court," he said.
Former Governor of Kaduna State and Chairman, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said what is happening to Ribadu should be of concern to every Nigerian because it can happen to anybody, especially when the power- that-be are after you for stepping on their toes.
"Unfortunately, Nigerians are not combatant. That is why government can do something like this and get away with it. The development is a threat to all public officers."
The Executive Director, Socio- Economic Rights and Accountability (SERAP), Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, condemned the dismissal and called on President Yar'Adua to order a reversal.