The war of words between pioneer EFCC chairman, Nuhu Ribadu and his former
boss, who masterminded his sack from the anti-corruption agency is not over yet.
Okiro had recently denied having hands in Rubadu's travails. Below is Ribadu's
reply to Okiro's denial:
As for Okiro's corruption credentials, we would like to alert the retired IGP that
he is dancing naked in the gallery as his nasty record is something known to
a lot of people. A man who clearly reeks of corruption, is Okiro denying that
he is corrupt when we all know he cannot account for the source of the
wealth he used in building a shopping mall in Jabi, a hotel with casino in
Lugbe and a private school, all in Abuja ? This is not to mention his property
in Lagos and Port Harcourt, while he was still serving in the police.
Our attention has been drawn to the shameless lies a former Inspector General of
Police, Mr. Mike Okiro recklessly spewed to the media on Monday. The cause of Mr.
Okiro's anger, the statement, in a London court, by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu that
James Ibori was instrumental to his emergence as the Inspector General of Police
(IGP) needs no further equivocation as it was an open secret to everybody in the
government circle then.
If Okiro is now denying this in public, there is no way he can deny this open secret
to a number of people including an influential governor from the North-Central
then, and a couple of other people who helped facilitate his selection by Ibori.
It was this same shameless method of desperate lobbying that Okiro, a chronic
political jobber and sycophant of the first order would use in getting subsequent
appointments as Chief Security Officer to the PDP national chairman and later,
regrettably, as the chairman of the Police Service Commission.
The assertion by Okiro that Ribadu wanted to be the IGP further underlines the
former IGP as a perennial peddler of falsehood. The truth is Nuhu Ribadu's focus
then was consolidating on his modest efforts at the EFCC, especially at a time
when he was working on high-profile cases, including that of Okiro's godfather,
James Ibori. We therefore challenge Okiro to name those people he called Ribadu's
friends that narrated the fictitious story of Ribadu's interest in becoming the IGP to
him.
The highest distortion in Okiro's statement, however, is his attempt to rewrite the
well-known and widely documented assassination attempts on the former EFCC
chairman, and Okiro's hand in it all. It is ridiculous that Okiro is now desperately
trying to paint himself in another colour after all the schemings he orchestrated. It
beats our imagination that Okiro would want a Nuhu Ribadu he was fighting to
destroy to report those incidences to him. It would have been a case of having a
culprit to be a judge in his own case. At the time, the trio of Micheal Aondoakaa,
the former Attorney General of the Federation, Okiro and Mrs Farida Waziri, the
former EFCC chairman, had created a hell out of the world for Ribadu. The only
sensible thing to do was to avoid these characters and seek solace somewhere
else. This notwithstanding, it is a blatant lie that Okiro telephoned Ribadu "several
times" but that he did not answer his calls. What Ribadu and other Nigerians easily
recall was an elated Okiro rushing to address the press to deny something he knew
nothing about. The bullet-riddled car Ribadu drove during that unfortunate life
threatening incident is still there, if Okiro or any other person would want further
proof.
On the issue of withdrawal of Ribadu's personal security, if Okiro is suffering from
selective amnesia, let him be reminded that that was exactly what he did. He also
redeployed Ibrahim Lamorde out of EFCC, to Bauchi State Police Command as Area
Commander in Ningi. He did the same thing to other top EFCC operatives that
Nigeria spent a fortune to train as investigators. One of them suspected to be close
to Ribadu was even locked up for months in police custody. This also belie his
statement that as IGP he could not have altered the postings of police within the
EFCC.
If a public servant, one tasked with the responsibility of protecting the lives of
Nigerians and instilling discipline in the police, managed to amass such wealth,
what gut does he have to talk of corruption? It is a national tragedy that a man of
such flawed character has now been appointed to head an important institution
like the Police Service Commission. May God rescue Nigeria
Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, Media Assistant to
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu
