Even though hawks within the Yar’adua kitchen cabinet have foreclosed rescind of the planned removal of EFCC Chairman Nuhu Ribadu the plot may have been put on hold, temporarily by the Umar Yar'adua government as the US and UK authorities waded in yesterday to prevent an outright removal of Ribadu by government. The delay is issuing a statement was so because Yar’adua contemplated that Nuhu Ribadu might see the handwriting clearly on the wall and resign both his commission in the police force and his headship of the EFCC, neither has happened as of the time of publishing this report.
Saharareporters was first to report about series of detailed plans by the regime to get rid of Nuhu Ribadu as the EFCC chairman, in an attempt to please former Governor James Ibori, a major financier of the Yar'adua presidential election.
At the latest, Ribadu’s removal was hatched in Kaduna prison at the behest of James Ibori and former governors indicted for corruption with active collaboration by Yar’adua, Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State, Baba Gana Kingibe and Michael Aondoakaa and lately Andy Uba whose police escorts were yanked by the IG on Christmas eve (Andy Uba was said to have found out from his sources at the EFCC that the commission had reached an advanced stage in investigations detailing corruption, money laundering and racketeering activities against him). Ibori is currently remanded in prison custody where he enjoys a luxurious lifestyle that one source described as akin to those of Colombian drug kingpins of the 1990s.
Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro had announced that Nuhu Ribadu was proceeding to the National Institute for Policy and Strategy Studies (NIPSS), Kuru-Jos on a compulsory one-year course.
New information surfaced last night that Ribadu was nominated by the Inspector General of Police for the NIPSS course after nominations had closed. A top police officer who requested anonymity told Saharareporters that officers nominated to the NIPSS course at Kuru typically get up to six-three months notice from the IG.“It is general knowledge in the NPF that you don’t get nominated to go to Kuru without your knowledge”, insisted our source.
Also, a source close to Ribadu said the Inspector General had not informed Ribadu or any member of the board of the commission about the impending course but instead the IG wrote a backdated memo to Yar’adua seeking approval to send Ribadu to the NIPSS last week.
The source described Ribadu's nomination as a smoke screen. “The real deal behind the Inspector General's decision was James Ibori,” said the source.
Saharareporters interviewed several members of Ibori’s inner circle and other political interests involved in the plot and they admitted to our reporters that they recently stumbled on the "Kuru Option” as they sought to tame a rampaging Nuhu Ribadu from wreaking further damage on the political class. But they now express cautious optimism as they fear that Ribadu might raid all of James Ibori’s associates before his departure from the EFCC.
The EFCC had penciled down Senators Markafi, Sanni Yerima, and George Akume all former governors for arrest and prosecution in the first week of January 2008.
They also have lined up former governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion (currently hiding in Europe); former governor, Peter Odili of Rivers State (said to have fled to Rome, Italy), Obong Victor Attah, formerly of Akwa Ibom and also the patriarch of the Saraki and other family members of the Saraki family for the fraud perpetrated by the Saraki’s at the failed Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria.
The decision to send Nuhu Ribadu to the NIPSS was taken last week at a meeting of several politicians meeting in Kaduna after they visited James Ibori in prison, and then at Maitama area of Abuja. The decision was then consummated on Christmas eve.
Although the American and British embassies have issued no statement regarding their intervention, Saharareporters gathered that both countries were working feverishly behind the scene to prevail on Yar’adua to grant Ribadu at least a one-year deferment on his NIPSS course.
We also gathered that both the US and the UK governments were working to bring in the German Chancellor to join their efforts. The Germans have better leverage on Yar'adua since Yar’adua has been receiving medical treatment in Germany. German doctors have been managing Yar’adua’s kidney ailment.
Meanwhile a silent war may brewing within the EFCC, two camps have emerged within the agency over the replacement of Nuhu Ribadu, while civilians professionals and operatives the NFIU (the intellgence gathering arm of the EFCC) support the emergence of Akomaye as the new EFCC chairman, police operatives who make up 70% of the EFCC want one of their own to become the chairman. It is not clear who will be chosen to head the EFCC if diplomatic efforts led by the UK and US government fail to get Yar'adua tochange the decision of the IG on Nuhu Ribadu.
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