Mr. Nuhu Ribadu

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  www.royalafricansociety.org/index.php?option=com_conten - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/26/2008    Last Visited: 6/15/2008  

  In Nigeria, Nuhu Ribadu headed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which is tasked with countering corruption and fraud, and is given the power to investigate and prosecute corrupt public officers.Ribadu indicted 26 governors, confiscating $5 billion.Ribadu successfully worked on retrieving some of the Abacha money.But 2 people have been killed as a result of the investigations, and an attempt was made on the life of the Director of Ribadu's cabinet.A few months ago, Ribadu indicted an influential governor.This was the last straw: Ribadu was sent to school.Many are worried about his security, but his popularity means people are travelling from all over to listen to him, offering him some form of protection.In Kenya, the Goldberg scandal cases went nowhere.People believe that Kibaki is only there to facilitate criminals plundering the country, and not to fight corruption, as he had initially promised.

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  www.africansinamericanewswatch.com/a/p/news/news0087.ht - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/8/2008    Last Visited: 5/2/2008  

  The redeployment of Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, the Executive Chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to attend one-year advanced course at the Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) has caused a lot of tension for popular but very fragile government of Umaru Yar'Adua.
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  Needless to state that Mr. Ribadu has done extremely marvelous job, having practically opened the eyes of Nigerians (and the world) to the extent of massive looting of the treasury by Nigerian public officials; he has record arrest of highly placed public office holders and court convictions unprecedented in the history of Nigeria.
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  But in the case of Ribadu and Nigeria's very complex, convoluted and extremely dicey socio-political circumstances, the actions of some key Nigeria public officers who ought to be partners in the war against corruption are highly deplorable.

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  ugochukwu.blog.com//Colonial+Mentality/ - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/11/2008    Last Visited: 2/21/2008  

  While I do not begrudge the EFCC Chairman, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, his newfound powers, which now clearly exalt his office far above that of governors, I can only plead that we look beyond the current occupants of those positions, and protect the sanctity of the office of Governor in Nigeria.Even if we must diminish that office, shouldn't it be more tolerable that we do it ourselves, than have some arrogant Americans do it for us?Indeed, if, as the cliché goes, we find it convenient today to chop off our nose to spite our face, we must not lose sight of the fact that it may be very hard to undertake any reclamation work tomorrow, even when we get the "right" people as Governors.
  
  And assuming all other countries, even without any prompting from Ribadu, decide tomorrow to equally demand EFCC clearance certificates, duly signed by Ribadu, from any Governor sighted near their embassy gates, what would Nigeria look like before the rest of the world?
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  And as Ribadu, like a newly appointed "Senior Prefect" of some village Grammar School, continues to bask in the enormous "sovereign" powers which such a state of affairs now confers on him over state governors, is there any possibility we would soon stop bowing to Massa?Would we be condemned to a situation whereby our leaders would continue to intone by their actions, like a typical colonial era steward before his proud master, Oh, I like Massa too mush!

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  news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7178734.stm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/9/2008    Last Visited: 1/9/2008  

  Nuhu Ribadu, head of the EFCCAnti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu leaves office in February
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  Mr Ribadu's imminent departure as EFCC head has proved highly controversial and has invited suspicion that the move is designed to hinder the campaign against corruption.
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  The move comes just weeks before Mr Ribadu is due to leave his job in February.
  
  He has been sent on a year-long study leave by the president, in an apparent attempt to sideline him.
  
  Mr Ribadu himself has been accused of sheltering allies of Mr Obasanjo.

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  anticorruptionleague.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=67 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 9/6/2006    Last Visited: 5/9/2007  

  Mr. Nuhu Ribadu.
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  When EFCC Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu met the Vice President in the course of their investigation, he never showed these particular cheques.
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  In the course of investigating Plateau State Accounts, Nuhu Ribadu stumbled on this payment, he brought it to the attention of the Vice President who was the chairman of the campaign, and the Vice President took it up with the President who accepted that they had no option but to return the money.

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  www.guardiannewsngr.com/policy_politics/article01//inde - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/3/2008    Last Visited: 1/3/2008  

  Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, mishandled the National Institute of Policy and Strategies Studies (NIPSS) issue and the speculation that the Federal Government is shielding former governors from facing graft charges in court is baseless.
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  COMMENT on reports that the President wants EFCC chairman, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu out and in the process employed the services of the Police Inspector General to send him to NIPSS on study leave ...
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  That is why I would never say anything that would undermine the agency or its Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, who has always been a brother and a friend.I believe in EFCC and I respect Ribadu a great deal for what he has done at least to stop the culture of impunity.
  
  But what is going on today is not right.I would not want to speculate as to why the Inspector General, Mr. Mike Okiro, would want Ribadu to go on course at this point, especially since he has given his side of the story but from my telephone conversation with him the day the story broke in the media, I think Ribadu mishandled the matter.The lesson here is that even when we hold public offices above our professional ranks, a little bit of humility also pays especially when dealing with constituted authority.As much as I support the work EFCC is doing and the courage of Ribadu, I think the media should discourage anything that tends towards a cult of personality, especially if we want to build institutions.Incidentally, this controversy started at a time the President's attention had been drawn to the fact that Ribadu's name was not sent to the Senate for confirmation as EFCC Chairman in his second term appointment by the former President as required by law.
  
  And efforts were being made to rectify that before it could become an issue.So technically speaking, assuming the President wanted Ribadu out, all he would do was to send the name of somebody else to the Senate.But we are told of how he (President) has been holding meetings just to remove a public official that could be sacked with a mere press statement from this little me.The President feels sad about the blackmail, which has become almost a permanent feature now.The moment EFCC Chairman has issues with any public official, be it the Attorney General or the IGP, the next thing you would hear is that the President wants to remove him to protect some corrupt former governors.If you believe a section of the media, you would think President Yar'Adua's preoccupation since he came to office has been how to remove Ribadu.Please get me right, I believe in Ribadu and the work he is doing and he knows he has friends like us here at the Villa.
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  And besides, I believe Ribadu as a person and EFCC as an institution have done very well in the fight against corruption and would not because of some mistakes being made work against them.Assuming I wanted to do propaganda, I also know what to say to change this one-sided media conversation the way EFCC also mischievously presented the President as shielding some corrupt people.But I would not do or say anything negative against Ribadu or against EFCC notwithstanding the dirty campaign and orchestrated falsehood coming from that end against my boss.
  
  What is painful is that the propaganda is coming at a time the President had decided to forward Ribadu's name to the Senate for confirmation as EFCC Chairman because he has no problem with him.
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  That also presupposes that only the court, and not Ribadu, can pronounce anybody corrupt and that is only upon conviction.That is what the rule of law entails, no matter what we may feel about certain people and the evident ill-gotten wealth in their custody.EFCC also complies fully with that now.
  
  So, to now impute that the President has been holding meetings to get Ribadu out because he wants to protect some people is most unfair and no leader would tolerate such blackmail, which has become an everyday affair now.That is why I say those doing the propaganda are not helping Ribadu or EFCC.Perhaps, if the style had been different, for instance, the President had been alerted of the NIPSS idea in confidence with his intervention sought before going to the media with damaging but false allegations, the story might have been different because there are also people who could have pleaded with the President not to accede to the recommendation.At that point, a decision could still be taken to avert this.But now, the propaganda has changed the whole debate.The recommendation of the IG has been approved, which means Ribadu will attend NIPSS like other officers so recommended.
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  You see, part of the problem is that this matter is being presented as if Ribadu is in competition with the President, that is why you read about how he cannot be removed by anybody, how he has powers to arrest even the Inspector General of Police who nominated him for the NIPSS programme.The misconception is such that you would imagine the war against corruption is now a one-man-show, rather than an institutional process.
  
  But there is also a campaign that I consider unfortunate.It is not true that the President is angry with Ribadu over allegations purportedly leveled by one-convicted 419 individual, which are an unfair charge.Ribadu is an honest and courageous officer doing a difficult job on which he has acquitted himself very well.
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  Speculations are normal with the media but as at today, Ribadu is still EFCC Chairman.And I get amused by what I read because even at this point, the direction of government is not what my friends are speculating in the media.In any case, NIPSS starts in February, so I fail to understand all the brouhaha about replacement and all that at this point.I think ultimately, it is Ribadu and his media friends that would help determine his fate one way or another.If he listens to some of us who are also his friends but on this side of the divide, this matter could still be resolved.But if he relies on media intimidation, it would be most unhelpful.
  
  Haven't you heard the fear being expressed, indeed in many quarters, that the President cannot fight corruption because his former colleagues are involved and that he needs to protect them because of the election?
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  That is another problem with the current debate over the fate of Ribadu who is being equated with EFCC even while we concede the great role he has been playing.
  
  You have not answered the charge that the President may be protecting his former colleagues because of the election issue?

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  www.heraldtribune.com/article/20071229/ZNYT03/712290671 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/29/2007    Last Visited: 12/29/2007  

  The official, Nuhu Ribadu, is a police investigator who has risen to become one of the most powerful and feared figures in Nigeria. Late Thursday, the top police official, Mike Okiro, said the decision to send Mr. Ribadu to study for a year was not an effort to push him aside, but part of routine training for senior officers.
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  Earlier this month Mr. Ribadu,s commission arrested James Ibori, a powerful former governor from an oil-rich state who is accused of stealing more than $85 million.
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  Mr. Ribadu was plucked from obscurity by Olusegun Obasanjo, then the president, to run a anticorruption commission after it was formed in 2002 as part of a long-promised push to rid Nigeria of graft.
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  But Mr. Ribadu was also criticized for being selective in his targets and sometimes ignoring due process.
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  Mr. Ribadu has estimated that corrupt government officials have siphoned $380 billion of the nation,s wealth since independence, with the greed equitably shared between the military and civilian rulers who have traded places at the helm over the years.

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  www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article01/indexn2_html?pda - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/29/2007    Last Visited: 12/29/2007  

  "Let all sophistry be abandoned - the removal of Nuhu Ribadu is not about the removal of one individual.
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  The statement added: "The NBA does not question the prerogative of the appropriate authorities to send Nuhu Ribadu on a course or to remove him, but it is important to note that the departure of Ribadu should not bring about the death or slow pace of the anti-corruption campaign.
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  "The NBA is of the view that the anti-corruption fight should continue unabated with the same intensity and passion with which Nuhu Ribadu was pursuing it.
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  I have a very good personal relationship with him, but a different policy relationship because I don't think Ribadu was right to have personalized the anti-corruption war."
  
  " I believe in institutions and not in personalities and so Nigerians are waiting to see that whoever is going to replace Ribadu will work for the public good by strengthening the anti-corruption war which will eventually bring back all the money stolen by political office holders," Agbakoba concluded.
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  "I believe if Ribadu is given a free hand and his agency is strengthened, he will do well."
  
  Chief Ladi Williams (SAN) in his own reaction however said whoever appointed Ribadu also had the power to sack since his office is an appointive one.
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  In a chat with The Guardian in Lagos yesterday, Nwabueze said Police order on Ribadu to proceed on a year's course was necessary for the EFCC to function well.
  
  "I think that it is necessary because the EFCC cannot function properly while Ribadu remains chairman.He has got himself so entangled.In his interest too, Ribadu should leave the scene.The EFCC under him has been so perverted and diverted from what it should be," he said.
  
  He continued: "I can't see former President Olusegun Obasanjo being touched while Ribadu is there.Let them get somebody else."
  
  Asked to assess Ribadu's performance and whether his exit would not affect the anti-graft crusade, Nwabueze said on the balance, Ribadu did not fare well.
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  He wanted the state governments to be an appendage of the Federal Government and he used Ribadu," the legal luminary declared.
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  Lagos lawyer, Mr. Bamidele Aturu described the decision by the Police to send Mr. Ribadu on course as "illegal and despicable."

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  www.efccnigeria.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=v - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/9/2008    Last Visited: 1/11/2008  

  The attention of Nuhu Ribadu, Executive Chairman, EFCC has been drawn to a mass of allegations which have been given generous space in the media.
  
  The publications of allegations against Ribadu arise from the attempts by two lawyers to compel the Inspector General of Police to initiate investigation into allegations that Mr. Ribadu purchased and owns properties in Abuja and Dubai.They are also praying the court to compel EFCC to render the Commission's audited accounts and submit same to the National Assembly.
  
  Mr. Ribadu wishes to state categorically that:
  
  1. He DOES NOT own houses in Abuja or Dubai or any other part of the world, other than his personal house built in his village in Yola, in the early 1990s;2. Apart from that, Mr. Ribadu owns a yet-to-be-developed plot of land in Katampe, an undeveloped district of Abuja, which was acquired in 1998;3. Apart from his official EFCC account, Mr. Ribadu does not operate a bank account anywhere else in the world;4. Like other Fulani, Mr. Ribadu also owns cows which he rears in his village;5. Mr. Ribadu hereby grants express permission to anyone who finds that he has assets other than those declared above, to seize them without further reference to him;6. When his official residence which belonged to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) was, in line with the policy of the last administration, offered for sale along with other houses in the area, Mr. Ribadu could not muster the funds to purchase the said house.However, sensitive to the possibility of a conflict of interest arising if he approached banks for a loan, given his position as EFCC Chairman, Ribadu nearly lost the house until his father-in-law, Professor Iya Abubakar, intervened.It was the Professor who bid for the house at a public auction and took a facility from his bankers, Fidelity Bank, to purchase the house, which cost N44m.As it is, Mr. Ribadu and his family is presently living in the Mambilla street house thanks to his father-in-law.All records pertaining to this transaction are available at the FCDA for anyone who wishes to check.
  
  7. It must be stated that as a public officer, Mr. Ribadu has dutifully sworn to oaths declaring his assets as and when due.The declarations are public documents and can be accessed at the appropriate agency for purposes of verification, seizure of undeclared assets and prosecution if need be.
  
  Further, Mr. Ribadu is saddened that otherwise learned gentlemen lend themselves as vehicles for the purveyance of obviously false allegations that the Commission has not been making annual renditions to the National Assembly in line with Sections 35 and 36 of the EFCC Establishment Act, 2004.
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  While Mr. Ribadu is saddened by the fact that enemies of the anti-corruption war would stop at nothing in the bid to sully its image, he welcomes the opportunity offered by the lawyers to deal squarely with the wild and resurgent allegations from which have regrettably spawned endless pepper soup joint plots for the Nigerian theatre of the absurd.

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  www.efccnigeria.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=v - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/9/2008    Last Visited: 1/11/2008  

  The attention of Nuhu Ribadu, Executive Chairman, EFCC has been drawn to a mass of allegations which have been given generous space in the media.
  
  The publications of allegations against Ribadu arise from the attempts by two lawyers to compel the Inspector General of Police to initiate investigation into allegations that Mr. Ribadu purchased and owns properties in Abuja and Dubai.They are also praying the court to compel EFCC to render the Commission's audited accounts and submit same to the National Assembly.
  
  Mr. Ribadu wishes to state categorically that:
  
  1. He DOES NOT own houses in Abuja or Dubai or any other part of the world, other than his personal house built in his village in Yola, in the early 1990s;2. Apart from that, Mr. Ribadu owns a yet-to-be-developed plot of land in Katampe, an undeveloped district of Abuja, which was acquired in 1998;3. Apart from his official EFCC account, Mr. Ribadu does not operate a bank account anywhere else in the world;4. Like other Fulani, Mr. Ribadu also owns cows which he rears in his village;5. Mr. Ribadu hereby grants express permission to anyone who finds that he has assets other than those declared above, to seize them without further reference to him;6. When his official residence which belonged to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) was, in line with the policy of the last administration, offered for sale along with other houses in the area, Mr. Ribadu could not muster the funds to purchase the said house.However, sensitive to the possibility of a conflict of interest arising if he approached banks for a loan, given his position as EFCC Chairman, Ribadu nearly lost the house until his father-in-law, Professor Iya Abubakar, intervened.It was the Professor who bid for the house at a public auction and took a facility from his bankers, Fidelity Bank, to purchase the house, which cost N44m.As it is, Mr. Ribadu and his family are presently living in the Mambilla street house thanks to his father-in-law.All records pertaining to this transaction are available at the FCDA for anyone who wishes to check.
  
  7. It must be stated that as a public officer, Mr. Ribadu has dutifully sworn to oaths declaring his assets as and when due.The declarations are public documents and can be accessed at the appropriate agency for purposes of verification, seizure of undeclared assets and prosecution if need be.
  
  Further, Mr. Ribadu is saddened that otherwise learned gentlemen lend themselves as vehicles for the purveyance of obviously false allegations that the Commission has not been making annual renditions to the National Assembly in line with Sections 35 and 36 of the EFCC Establishment Act, 2004.
  ...
  While Mr. Ribadu is saddened by the fact that enemies of the anti-corruption war would stop at nothing in the bid to sully its image, he welcomes the opportunity offered by the lawyers to deal squarely with the wild and resurgent allegations from which have regrettably spawned endless pepper soup joint plots for the Nigerian theatre of the absurd.

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