Micheal Aondoakaa, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice cannot stop surprising Nigerians by his intoxification with the assignment given him by Umaru Yar’adua. The funny way he has conducted himself in office obviously shows that he is completely oblivious of the workings of the mindsets of the “real” Nigerians.
It is quite unfortunate that while other countries are fighting corruption with seriousness, Nigerian government officials (the worst of the corrupt bunch) are neck deep in broad day cover –ups of terrible cases. The most annoying aspect of this double standard is that it is being perpetrated by the very people, the attorney general and minister of justice of the federation and his boss President Umaru Yar’adua who claim to be at the forefront of the anti-graft war. It is now very obvious why they removed Ribadu.
Rather than the present mess he has introduced into the Yar’adua’s government, Aondoakaa should have looked for a better way to free the President’s friends and sponsors and still successfully continue to deceive Nigerians that the anti corruption war against politicians and elected officials remains one of the seven- point agenda.
Who should Nigerians believe now in the ongoing show of shame between the Office of the Attorney General and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC)?
Mr Aondoakaa, on Thursday 10 September exonerated David Edevbie, the Principal Private Secretary to President Umaru Yar'Adua, from the alleged involvement in money laundering in the Vmobile scandal. He also single handedly or maybe under the orders of the president, cleared three former Governors - Bola Tinubu (Lagos), James Ibori (Delta), and Victor Attah (Akwa Ibom) - of the charges against them in a London court.
He equally threatened former EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu with arrest over the latter's deposition in a British court indicting Ibori in the Vmobile scandal. The nation’s chief legal officer said the affidavit Ribadu, swore to in the London court was a lie to embarrass Yar'Adua and portray the government as unserious in the fight against corruption.
Meanwhile, in less than 24 hours from the AGF’s shameful pronouncement on the accused former governors, the EFCC in a statement reeking with anger, said it has not cleared any of the accused- former Delta State governor Chief James Ibori, his former Lagos State counterparts, Bola Tinubu and Akwa Ibom State’s Obong Victor Attah.
The EFCC statement was in direct response to the one on Thursday by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
Entitled: "We've Not Cleared Ibori, Tinubu, Attah-EFCC," the statement by the anti-graft agency, said that the minister's claims were untrue. What a shame to Aondoakaa!
It read: “The attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has been drawn to reports in national dailies of today September 11, 2009 to the effect that the anti-graft agency has cleared some former governors who have been under investigation.
“The Commission wishes to state emphatically that it has not at any time or in any correspondence with the persons referred to in these media reports or any other person cleared them of complicity in all matters relating to them which are either in court or still under investigation.
“It is therefore inappropriate to input or infer that the three former governors have been exonerated in matters that are still pending or yet to be determined by the law court which is the only competent organ of government that can pronounce guilt or innocence in matters like the ones under reference.
“The Commission has to make this clarification in view of the volume of enquiries from concerned Nigerians so as to lay to rest all doubts and insinuations as to the position of the Commission and its leadership in all these.
“The letter being referred to in these reports has no specific impact or reference to the cases of the three former governors as it was only an advice to a bank on the operation of a company's account and as such cannot speak for substantive cases being investigated.
“While not adjudging anyone guilty until proven so, the Commission wishes to restate that it has not in anyway declared the three former governors innocent of the allegations for which they are being investigated.”
The question now is: who cleared the accused former governors- Aondoakaa or Farida Waziri or maybe the duo of Umooru and Turai? The speed with which this AGF always clears Ibori is extraordinary and very suspicious. Who conducted the investigation that cleared the three former governors-Ribadu’s EFCC or Farida’s EFCC or Aondoakaa’s office? What a disgrace!
Someone should please tell Aondoakaa that the whole world hears and takes records when he says these things? Is he at all mindful of the implications of what he says as the attorney general of the federation and the minister of justice- the chief legal officer?
If Aondoakaa wanted Nigerians to accept that Nuhu Ribadu was responsible for the charges against Ibori and Mr. President’s personal assistant, he equally needs to tell us who we should blame for his failure to prosecute those public officials outrightly accused by name in the Haliburton and the Siemens Bribery scandals.
As was rightly pointed out by a prominent Nigerian, “The Americans have thrown their own citizens involved in the Haliburton bribery scandal in jail and our Attorney General had nothing more to offer on this issue than that he had released 50 million Naira for the committee to do its work but that they have been slowed down by the retirement of the former IGP, Mr. Okiro. The question is this-was Mr. Okiro’s retirement a surprise? Why should his retirement stop his committee from operating?”
Aondoakaa should be told and in a plain language too that Nigerians have a way of always switching their support, commitment and sympathy to anybody perceived to be unjustly persecuted by government and its officials and this is the category the former EFCC chairman has worked himself into.
By the way, why can’t the President sack this man that is not only embarrassing him and his government but Nigeria as a whole? President Yar’adua is truly handicapped and it was all be Obasanjo’s design.
SENIOR FYNEFACE, ELELEWON STREET GRA II, PORT HARCOURT ([email protected])
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