December 30, 2007
The plot to finally ease out Nuhu Ribadu as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission took a lot of twists and turns before the Inspector General of Police’s “Kuru Option” was cemented last week. IG of Police, Mike Okiro, almost chickened out on "Christmas Eve" as the gladiators connected to former Governor James Ibori put finishing touches to the final plan.
At a critical stage in the plot, Okiro, who now faces a barrage of criticism for his role in Ribadu’s removal, was said to have gone "AWOL" on Nigeria’s Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa, who was spearheading the plot. Okiro made himself unavailable to the AGF, claiming that he was attending an all-day church service.
A worried Aondoakaa moved into the Benue State Government House in Makurdi and persuaded the state’s Commissioner of Police to send a "distress signal" to the Inspector General of Police. When Okiro responded to the commissioner’s message, Mr. Aondoakaa was the one to pick up the phone.
The attorney general then piled pressure on Mr. Okiro to go along with the plan to send Ribadu on a course. Okiro expressed anxiety about the adverse public reaction that might greet the action. He also said that Ribadu had had a hand in the demise of two IGs who were his immediate predecessors—and pleaded that he did not want to be the next victim. A source close to the IG said Okiro and Aondoakaa had broadly discussed the option of sending Ribadu to the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies in Kuru. The discussion took place when the duo traveled to New York as part of the Federal Government delegation to discuss the Greentree Agreement on Bakassi. "The IG didn't contemplate that the plot would be activated so urgently," said our source.
Aondoakaa not only prevailed on Okiro to send a memo to Umar Yar'adua requesting permission to send Ribadu on a yearlong course, he also helped compose the memo. The AGF then carried the letter to Yar’adua.
While Aondoakaa and Okiro negotiated, another plot was brewing in Abuja and Lagos. The IG ordered the removal of Andy Uba’s police protection. Mr. Uba, who was in Enugu for the Christmas celebrations, ran back to Abuja.
Uba, who saw Ibori’s hand in the sudden withdrawal of his police detail, was rattled by the development. Ibori’s camp had held him and former President Olusegun Obasanjo largely responsible for the ex-governor’s travails. Ibori had routed most of the N9 billion he invested in the Yar’adua presidential campaign through Mr. Uba. Sources close to Ibori said the detained former governor was furious that Uba and Obasanjo pocketed most of the money, using much of it to acquire palatial homes in Abuja and elsewhere. Aware of Ibori’s anger, Uba had recently started reaching out to Ibori through General Gusau, the former National Security Advisor.
Ibori had also asked Uba, in whose house he was arrested, to plead with Nuhu Ribadu to accept a plea bargain. Ibori suggested that the EFCC recommend that he receive a two-year suspended sentence and a ten-year ban from politics.
Uba reportedly agreed to broker the deal, but wanted to get a firm commitment from Ibori that he would not demur on the plan before broaching it to Ribadu.
But with the success of the Kuru option, Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara and Mr. Aondoakaa told Ibori that there was no point in further meeting with Uba.
But with his police protection stripped, Uba was the one who badly needed a meeting with Ibori. Uba, whose efforts to contact the IG and Yar'adua were frustrated, wanted to ask Ibori’s intervention on his behalf.
Ibori approved Uba and Aliko Dangote’s visit to him in Kaduna prison, but also insisted that they be accompanied by three of his “neutral friends” namely Thisday publisher, Nduka Obaigbena, former Ogun State governor, Olusegun Osoba, and former governor of Ekiti State, Niyi Adebayo. A source close to the Ibori camp said his strange condition was to forestall any attempt by Uba and Dangote to push the plea bargain option since they had succeeded in getting Nuhu Ribadu removed.
Saharareporters learned that the visitors traveled from Abuja to Kaduna in a chartered plane arranged by Ibori. When contacted, Segun Osoba told Saharareporters that he was at Kaduna Prison to see Ibori on a social visit. He denied being part of any "delegation" or special mission to see Ibori. While admitting that he and the other four persons mentioned by our reporter were ushered in to see Ibori at the same time, he said he never hid his identity on the visit.
While Ibori's people aborted the earlier plea bargain option with Uba and Dangote, whom they claimed were acting at the behest of Obasanjo and Ribadu, the group led by the Andoakaa worked out of the Benue Government House to effect the option of sending Ribadu to Kuru.
However, the arrangements hit a snag because Saharareporters had got wind of the plot and leaked it on its website. Worried, Yar'adua reminded Andoakaa that Ribadu and his handlers were good at using both local and international media to fight. He wondered if the Ibori group could come up damaging information that would tarnish Ribadu's image as soon as the decision became public knowledge. Yar’adua felt that Ribadu’s removal would only succeed if the plotters could portray Ribadu as ambitious, corrupt and reckless.
As a first step, information was planted in select news media alleging that Ribadu had actually applied for the course at NIPSS, Kuru in an ambitious bid to become the IG under Obasanjo. But that ploy didn't stick because the course level requires nomination by the heads of relevant agencies.
Then the Ibori team asked a convicted scam artist, Emmanuel Nwude, to submit his petition against the EFCC leadership regarding the way his assets were handled after he was convicted for duping a Brazilian bank to the tune 242 million USD.
Several weeks ago, the Yar’adua administration had weighed the prospect of using Nwude petition as part of the tools to remove Ribadu. Yar'adua, who had then discovered that Ribadu had not received requisite confirmation by the Senate, reportedly considered employing the Nwude petition to damage Ribadu’s chances of receiving senatorial confirmation.
A source said Yar’adua feared that he could not get away with playing up Nwude's petition which had provoked strong public backlash when it was published as a paid advert in one or two dailies.
Yar’adua insisted on a “strong petition.” One was quickly supplied by Terry Waya, the controversial London-based Nigerian businessman, who wrote what a source within the Ibori group termed as a "bunker buster" petition.
In the petition, which was addressed to Yar'adua and copied to the Secretary to the Government, AGF and the IG, Waya outlined details of a deal between Obong Victor Attah, the former governor of Akwa Ibom State and the EFCC. The petition stated that in an attempt to avert arrest and prosecution by the EFCC, Attah asked his finance commissioner, Umanah, to reach out to the EFCC for settlement.
The petition alleged that Umanah recruited the help of one Jide Omokaro and Segun Awolowo, the grandson of Chief Obafemi Awolowo to act as conduits to pass the “settlement” to Ribadu’s agent, identified as Abdulralman Abdul-Razak. The petition said Abdul-Razak collected an initial $1 million payoff on behalf of the EFCC chairman.
Waya alleged that the entire deal was for $5 million, but that Awolowo and Abdul-Razak soon feuded over suspicions that Awolowo was not passing along the full sums he collected from the Akwa Ibom government. Obong Attah reportedly stopped paying the last $3 million when word reached him that a cold war brewed between Segun Awolowo and Abdulrahman Razak.
Attah left Nigeria shortly after for a prolonged trip. He only returned recently and remains a free man.
EFCC sources told Saharareporters that the agency had concluded its investigation of Attah and that he would soon be arrested.
Waya's petition also alleged that former Edo state governor, Lucky Igbinedion, and his brother, Bright Igbinedion, had bribed the EFCC chairman who then looked the other way as they fled Nigeria to evade arrest and prosecution for money laundering. But EFCC sources pooh-poohed the allegation, saying that Igbinedion would be arrested or declared wanted in the New Year.
EFCC sources told our reporters that corrupt politicians always get scammed by those who claim to act on EFCC’s behalf, they referred us to bribes given by James Ibori and Emmanuel Nwude as solid evidence that, when trapped, politicians can be desperate, but express
Confidence that the petitions were instigated to tarnish the image of the commission.
A source inside the Yar'adua administration told Saharareporters that Ribadu’s removal had turned into a public relations nightmare. To stem the bad publicity, the source disclosed that the presidency has decided to let Ribadu stay as the head of anti-corruption agency, but on the condition that he accept the order to go for the course at NIPSS.
We have also learned that some people within the administration asked Mr. Andy Uba to convince Ribadu to resign from the police force. Our source revealed that this was part of a ploy to portray Ribadu as too ambitious. If he falls for the bait, the president would ask that he stay on temporarily for six months while his name is sent to the Senate for confirmation.
If Ribadu accepts to proceed to NIPSS, Kuru in February, a source has also told us that Attorney General Aondoakaa is expected to order Ribadu to go on compulsory leave while he constitutes a special committee to look into the various allegations contained in the petitions before Yar’adua. “The idea is to send Ribadu on leave as soon as the next working day. He needs to be out of the way so that those who worked hard to remove him can begin to consolidate their gains,” said the source. Sending him on compulsory leave is aimed at minimizing the damage his stay between now and February could cause his detractors at the commission.
Meanwhile, a new set of transfer signals targeting six more senior EFCC operatives have been compiled by the IG, they represent the next onslaught on the leadership of the EFCC who come from the Nigerian police force.
At a critical stage in the plot, Okiro, who now faces a barrage of criticism for his role in Ribadu’s removal, was said to have gone "AWOL" on Nigeria’s Attorney General, Michael Aondoakaa, who was spearheading the plot. Okiro made himself unavailable to the AGF, claiming that he was attending an all-day church service.
A worried Aondoakaa moved into the Benue State Government House in Makurdi and persuaded the state’s Commissioner of Police to send a "distress signal" to the Inspector General of Police. When Okiro responded to the commissioner’s message, Mr. Aondoakaa was the one to pick up the phone.
The attorney general then piled pressure on Mr. Okiro to go along with the plan to send Ribadu on a course. Okiro expressed anxiety about the adverse public reaction that might greet the action. He also said that Ribadu had had a hand in the demise of two IGs who were his immediate predecessors—and pleaded that he did not want to be the next victim. A source close to the IG said Okiro and Aondoakaa had broadly discussed the option of sending Ribadu to the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies in Kuru. The discussion took place when the duo traveled to New York as part of the Federal Government delegation to discuss the Greentree Agreement on Bakassi. "The IG didn't contemplate that the plot would be activated so urgently," said our source.
Aondoakaa not only prevailed on Okiro to send a memo to Umar Yar'adua requesting permission to send Ribadu on a yearlong course, he also helped compose the memo. The AGF then carried the letter to Yar’adua.
While Aondoakaa and Okiro negotiated, another plot was brewing in Abuja and Lagos. The IG ordered the removal of Andy Uba’s police protection. Mr. Uba, who was in Enugu for the Christmas celebrations, ran back to Abuja.
Uba, who saw Ibori’s hand in the sudden withdrawal of his police detail, was rattled by the development. Ibori’s camp had held him and former President Olusegun Obasanjo largely responsible for the ex-governor’s travails. Ibori had routed most of the N9 billion he invested in the Yar’adua presidential campaign through Mr. Uba. Sources close to Ibori said the detained former governor was furious that Uba and Obasanjo pocketed most of the money, using much of it to acquire palatial homes in Abuja and elsewhere. Aware of Ibori’s anger, Uba had recently started reaching out to Ibori through General Gusau, the former National Security Advisor.
Ibori had also asked Uba, in whose house he was arrested, to plead with Nuhu Ribadu to accept a plea bargain. Ibori suggested that the EFCC recommend that he receive a two-year suspended sentence and a ten-year ban from politics.
Uba reportedly agreed to broker the deal, but wanted to get a firm commitment from Ibori that he would not demur on the plan before broaching it to Ribadu.
But with the success of the Kuru option, Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara and Mr. Aondoakaa told Ibori that there was no point in further meeting with Uba.
But with his police protection stripped, Uba was the one who badly needed a meeting with Ibori. Uba, whose efforts to contact the IG and Yar'adua were frustrated, wanted to ask Ibori’s intervention on his behalf.
Ibori approved Uba and Aliko Dangote’s visit to him in Kaduna prison, but also insisted that they be accompanied by three of his “neutral friends” namely Thisday publisher, Nduka Obaigbena, former Ogun State governor, Olusegun Osoba, and former governor of Ekiti State, Niyi Adebayo. A source close to the Ibori camp said his strange condition was to forestall any attempt by Uba and Dangote to push the plea bargain option since they had succeeded in getting Nuhu Ribadu removed.
Saharareporters learned that the visitors traveled from Abuja to Kaduna in a chartered plane arranged by Ibori. When contacted, Segun Osoba told Saharareporters that he was at Kaduna Prison to see Ibori on a social visit. He denied being part of any "delegation" or special mission to see Ibori. While admitting that he and the other four persons mentioned by our reporter were ushered in to see Ibori at the same time, he said he never hid his identity on the visit.
While Ibori's people aborted the earlier plea bargain option with Uba and Dangote, whom they claimed were acting at the behest of Obasanjo and Ribadu, the group led by the Andoakaa worked out of the Benue Government House to effect the option of sending Ribadu to Kuru.
However, the arrangements hit a snag because Saharareporters had got wind of the plot and leaked it on its website. Worried, Yar'adua reminded Andoakaa that Ribadu and his handlers were good at using both local and international media to fight. He wondered if the Ibori group could come up damaging information that would tarnish Ribadu's image as soon as the decision became public knowledge. Yar’adua felt that Ribadu’s removal would only succeed if the plotters could portray Ribadu as ambitious, corrupt and reckless.
As a first step, information was planted in select news media alleging that Ribadu had actually applied for the course at NIPSS, Kuru in an ambitious bid to become the IG under Obasanjo. But that ploy didn't stick because the course level requires nomination by the heads of relevant agencies.
Then the Ibori team asked a convicted scam artist, Emmanuel Nwude, to submit his petition against the EFCC leadership regarding the way his assets were handled after he was convicted for duping a Brazilian bank to the tune 242 million USD.
Several weeks ago, the Yar’adua administration had weighed the prospect of using Nwude petition as part of the tools to remove Ribadu. Yar'adua, who had then discovered that Ribadu had not received requisite confirmation by the Senate, reportedly considered employing the Nwude petition to damage Ribadu’s chances of receiving senatorial confirmation.
A source said Yar’adua feared that he could not get away with playing up Nwude's petition which had provoked strong public backlash when it was published as a paid advert in one or two dailies.
Yar’adua insisted on a “strong petition.” One was quickly supplied by Terry Waya, the controversial London-based Nigerian businessman, who wrote what a source within the Ibori group termed as a "bunker buster" petition.
In the petition, which was addressed to Yar'adua and copied to the Secretary to the Government, AGF and the IG, Waya outlined details of a deal between Obong Victor Attah, the former governor of Akwa Ibom State and the EFCC. The petition stated that in an attempt to avert arrest and prosecution by the EFCC, Attah asked his finance commissioner, Umanah, to reach out to the EFCC for settlement.
The petition alleged that Umanah recruited the help of one Jide Omokaro and Segun Awolowo, the grandson of Chief Obafemi Awolowo to act as conduits to pass the “settlement” to Ribadu’s agent, identified as Abdulralman Abdul-Razak. The petition said Abdul-Razak collected an initial $1 million payoff on behalf of the EFCC chairman.
Waya alleged that the entire deal was for $5 million, but that Awolowo and Abdul-Razak soon feuded over suspicions that Awolowo was not passing along the full sums he collected from the Akwa Ibom government. Obong Attah reportedly stopped paying the last $3 million when word reached him that a cold war brewed between Segun Awolowo and Abdulrahman Razak.
Attah left Nigeria shortly after for a prolonged trip. He only returned recently and remains a free man.
EFCC sources told Saharareporters that the agency had concluded its investigation of Attah and that he would soon be arrested.
Waya's petition also alleged that former Edo state governor, Lucky Igbinedion, and his brother, Bright Igbinedion, had bribed the EFCC chairman who then looked the other way as they fled Nigeria to evade arrest and prosecution for money laundering. But EFCC sources pooh-poohed the allegation, saying that Igbinedion would be arrested or declared wanted in the New Year.
EFCC sources told our reporters that corrupt politicians always get scammed by those who claim to act on EFCC’s behalf, they referred us to bribes given by James Ibori and Emmanuel Nwude as solid evidence that, when trapped, politicians can be desperate, but express
Confidence that the petitions were instigated to tarnish the image of the commission.
A source inside the Yar'adua administration told Saharareporters that Ribadu’s removal had turned into a public relations nightmare. To stem the bad publicity, the source disclosed that the presidency has decided to let Ribadu stay as the head of anti-corruption agency, but on the condition that he accept the order to go for the course at NIPSS.
We have also learned that some people within the administration asked Mr. Andy Uba to convince Ribadu to resign from the police force. Our source revealed that this was part of a ploy to portray Ribadu as too ambitious. If he falls for the bait, the president would ask that he stay on temporarily for six months while his name is sent to the Senate for confirmation.
If Ribadu accepts to proceed to NIPSS, Kuru in February, a source has also told us that Attorney General Aondoakaa is expected to order Ribadu to go on compulsory leave while he constitutes a special committee to look into the various allegations contained in the petitions before Yar’adua. “The idea is to send Ribadu on leave as soon as the next working day. He needs to be out of the way so that those who worked hard to remove him can begin to consolidate their gains,” said the source. Sending him on compulsory leave is aimed at minimizing the damage his stay between now and February could cause his detractors at the commission.
Meanwhile, a new set of transfer signals targeting six more senior EFCC operatives have been compiled by the IG, they represent the next onslaught on the leadership of the EFCC who come from the Nigerian police force.
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