It was true that he went to Ota to visit Obasanjo, but the visit was in no way connected with the tales being spread. He merely went there to thank him, as Obasanjo himself had sent to him a letter of appreciation for his service to Nigeria during his time. And did he think his job was on the line, as he had met the new President, Umar Yar’Adua, who had encouraged him to continue his work? "Where did they get all these stories from?" A pained Ribadu asked last week.
He did not need to look far for an answer. In the past few weeks, the Nigerian media have been awash with all manner of anti-EFCC and anti-Ribadu stories, suggesting that the anti-graft agency was out of favour with the new government and that it was gradually cruising to a terminal roadblock. The stories also suggested that the agency’s boss, the dreaded hunter of money launderers and corrupt government officials, is now a game for his former preys, through proxies and surrogates, questioning his integrity.
Many reports spoke about pressure being mounted on President Yar’Adua to sack the Chairman of the EFCC. And those being speculated for baying for Ribadu’s head are said to be former governors and former military leader, General Ibrahim Babangida. To give the speculations a stamp of authenticity and plausibility, they said the men were working against Ribadu because he had humiliated them in the past, with the approval of Obasanjo. The men, the reports said, have the ears of Yar’Adua, who is said to be on the verge of handing a sack letter to Ribadu.
According to Saharareporters, Babangida never forgave Ribadu for practically scuttling his desire to return to power prior to the 2007 general elections. The EFCC had arrested his first son, Mohammed, for owning shares valued at N1.5billion in telecommunications company, Globacom. But he was released on bail as intense pressure was mounted on Nuhu Ribadu through Nasir el-Rufai. The EFCC also accused France of helping the ex-head of the military junta to hide his stolen assets. The online news agency also spoke about a South-South governor, said to be seriously offended that Ribadu convinced Yar’Adua to exclude him and other former governors from his cabinet, on the grounds that they failed the code of conduct test. This particular governor was said to be the subject of a meeting between the EFCC and a delegation of the London Metropolitan Police, led by DC Peter Clarke of the Assets Recovery Unit at the New Scotland Yard, to present evidence of the ex-governor’s money laundering activities in the UK and elsewhere. They also presented incontrovertible evidence of the ex-governor’s ownership of a barely known, but lucrative airline-Wings Aviation Airline Limited.
Peddlers of the stories said Yar’Adua may buckle under the pressure being piled to sack Ribadu and an indication that all was not well, they said, was that the Yar’Adua government did not engage the services of the EFCC in vetting the list of ministers.The job was done by the police and the State Security Service. The reports also indicated that President Yar’Adua had asked Ribadu to hand over the probe files on the governors to the ICPC.
But EFCC sources described a lot of the reports as bunkum. The sources said there was no truth in reports that the EFCC had been emasculated by the new government and that it had been ordered to hand over the files on the governors to the ICPC.
"The EFCC would, in a matter of days, spring a major surprise. You just wait and see,’’ said an EFCC source, accusing certain political personalities of masterminding the smear campaign. "Maybe they want to return Nigeria to the era of free-for-all corruption that was the hallmark of the Babangida years,’’ the source added.
TheNEWS’ investigation showed that a leg of the smear campaign was being bankrolled by some top police chiefs, afraid that Ribadu remains their greatest threat to their ambition of becoming the Inspector-General of Police. TheNEWS found that the police chiefs were being assisted by some retired journalists, with vast connections in the media. It is these journalists, the magazine discovered, who have been responsible for several canned stories in the media. One journalist who was invited to one of the sessions where the reports to publish against Ribadu were farmed out, said money was distributed, right in the presence of a police chief, expected to be the greatest beneficiary of the campaign of calumny.
Part of the plot was the release of a document which detailed the controversy surrounding House 18, Mambilla Street, Asokoro, Abuja alleged to have been purchased by Ribadu. The motive, according to this magazine’s findings, is to portray Ribadu as a typical Nigerian policeman, who is as corrupt as any other policeman and who therefore is unfit for his present job and any other.
In the four- page document titled: RE: ASO GUESTHOUSE SALE: HOW OBASANJO’S AIDES BOUGHT CHOICE HOUSES, signed by one Nuru Ismail Balarabe, Ribadu was said to have been involved "in a transaction that was less than transparent itself, where the highest bidder offered N120 million for the house, but Nasir ( el-Rufai, former FCT Minister) sold the house to the anti-graft boss for N80 million. The deal was made with the tacit agreement of the former president, whom I will prefer to refer to here as Baba. The house was promptly paid for, fully at the time Ribadu was just an Assistant Commissioner of Police. It was actually for this reason, that Nasir dissuaded the former IGP Ehindero, from insisting on buying the house, and instead offered to help him buy the IG’s official residence, on Katsina-Ala Crescent, Maitama, Abuja . This part of the story in itself is very long, and I will rather leave it here, for now."
This document, was addressed to the editor of an Abuja-based newspaper and copied to other media organisations. The idea, according to sources, is for the media houses to feast on the story and allow public opinion to condemn Ribadu as an unfit material for the EFCC.
But Ribadu, who said he would not dignify the petitioners with a response, described the circulating document as "arrant nonsense and very very stupid; it is totally fabricated. Go to AGIS and ascertain the ownership of the property," he challenged the media.
It was not the first time that Ribadu would face adversarial campaigns such as these. In the few months leading to the demise of the Obasanjo administration, when the position of Inspector-General was to be filled, Ribadu was also the target of several scurrillous attacks in the media. He was said to be inexperienced in operational matters and also said to be the least trained of the contenders for the post, having not attended the civil service elite college, in Kuru, Jos. The attackers also alleged that Ribadu was not a qualified lawyer. Ribadu knew where the missiles were being fired. To his attackers, he asked that they sheathed their swords, as he had not announced any interest in the IGP position.
It is not unexpected that Ribadu would contend with the many poisonous arrows now being fired at him and the agency he heads. The seeds for the attacks were planted in the run-off to the April general elections when the EFCC reeled out a list of politicians whom the Commission said were unfit for public office. The list contains names such as Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Dr. Chris Ngige, and 132 others. Expectedly, the list generated a loud outcry, especially when details of their offences were sketchy. Politicians pounced on Ribadu, and asked for his head, for coming to the conclusion that they were guilty and publishing their names without stating their alleged offences or giving them a chance to defend themselves. Many resorted to the courts. A few got reprieve, but never forgave him for scuttling their political ambition. Ribadu’s response to the politicians’ allegations was that "the letters we wrote are personal to the political parties. And in the letter, we gave the names and said our people are available to give them the details. It will be very unfair for us to give the details publicly because we are also trying to protect their names. We told the political parties that our people are available to give them details, to discuss with them. The list is advisory; we are not saying that you must do this or do that."
In an interview with journalists before the April elections, Ribadu claimed the list was not drawn up by EFCC. "Almost all that you saw in the media, particularly in the print media, are not reports from us at all. They are fabrications. They are forgeries. They were made by people who want to continue to confuse everybody. And so many of the names you saw there were never part of those mentioned as indicted. Whatever good thing that you want to do, bad people are out there trying to destroy it, to manipulate it, to change it, to doctor it themselves," Ribadu said. He explained that the mix-up arose from individuals whose corrupt empires were the target of the commission. He claimed they were responsible for forging the list in a bid to create a diversion from their fraudulent activities.
Some critics also accused Ribadu of allowing himself to be used by the Obasanjo administration to do a hatchet job, especially in view of some contradictions and gaping holes on the list. The critics cited the non-inclusion of Chief Bayo Alao-Akala, who was indicted as the Deputy Governor of Oyo State and Chief Olabode George, PDP Deputy Chairman (South), over his role as chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority. Ribadu was also criticised over the investigation of the finances of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), which led to the purported indictment of former Vice President Abubakar. There were also criticisms over EFCC’s tactics in impeaching governors like DSP, Alamieyeseigha (Bayelsa), Joshua Dariye (Plateau) and Ayo Fayose (Ekiti).
One EFCC official said, in defence, that if Nigeria were to depend on the existing laws or the judiciary, many financial criminals would get away. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to the source, had to rush some amendments through Congress to give its actions (which are considered harsh) some legal backing. On the issue of arm-twisting legislators, the same source said plea bargaining is allowed in the law setting up the commission. "This is to use a lesser thief to catch the bigger criminal. Of course, the former will go free after refunding what he stole," he said. But analysts keep wondering if the lesser criminals always refund what they stole.
Ribadu has also been criticised for not arresting some big shots like General Babangida, despite overwhelming evidence of corruption. On the other hand, however, there are those who praise Ribadu for spreading the dragnet wide enough to contain corrupt individuals inside and outside the political field.
As at last June, the commission had already investigated 550 cases, confiscated landed property, oil tankers, private jets, state-of-art vehicles. Also, it has been able to retrieve more than $4 billion in assets. Still, Ribadu vowed to prosecute about 24 governors, whose cases could not be tried because of the immunity clause, once they leave office. The commission had secured over 200 convictions, a feat the agency said was the highest by any such agency in the world. Business mogul, Mike Adenuga; former military administrator of Borno and Lagos States, Mohammed Buba Marwa, and Otunba Johnson Fasawe are among the many people who had passed through the grilling experience of Ribadu’s commission. The commission under Ribadu has recorded other laudable achievements in the implementation of its preventive and prosecution mandate. The commission is also investigating over 2,103 cases, with 306 cases under prosecution while over 2000 arrests have been made so far.
By and large, is Ribadu a fine officer who has made Nigerians proud? Is he a victim of mistakes that crop up when a man performs his task with zeal? Barrister Anthony Agbonlahor of Supreme Chambers told this magazine last week in Abuja that Ribadu is a victim of the Nigeria system. Explaining, he said: "Before Ribadu’s EFCC, corruption walked on four legs. Today, a corrupt Nigerian can not walk freely on the streets of Nigeria without the fear of Ribadu’s EFCC. If anything, Ribadu should be celebrated for the success he has achieved in the fight against corruption." Another lawyer, Desmond Yamah, also praised Ribadu. Speaking on the alleged acquisition of N80million property, in Abuja , he said: "If he is able to establish the source and it’s legal of course, he is entitled to own property, it’s a constitutional right. If he got money in a legal way to own the house, why not?" He asked rhetorically.
He said Ribadu, since his appointment as the pioneer Chairman of EFCC in 2003, has opened a new phase in the crusade against corruption and other related crimes. From an obscure and crawling anti-graft agency, the cop through his determined effort to rid the country of all forms of financial malpractice, he said has lifted the commission to a world acclaimed level.
Agbonlahor also reasoned that Ribadu is determined to live up to his promise of changing the perception that only the poor go to jail, while the rich always buy their way out. The EFCC boss, he said, has been going after the high and mighty who are criminals in the country and bringing them to justice. "It is on record that it is Ribadu who is the only police officer that has taken his boss, an Inspector-General of Police to court on account of corruption," he said. It would be recalled that in January 2005 the report of his investigations led to the sack of his former boss, Tafa Balogun. Ribadu also tried a two-term member of the House of Representatives, the late Maurice Ibekwe.
Before his appointment as the EFCC Chairman four years ago, the 47-year old lawyer, was the head of the Legal and Prosecution Department at the Police Force Headquarters, Abuja.
The secret of Ribadu’s success can be linked to the wide consultations he made when he came on board. He was said to have been advised by a lawyer that if he wanted to succeed, he had to amend the area of the law that has to do with the "stay of proceedings."
The secretary of the commission, Mr. Emmanuel Akomaye, drafted the amendment to Section 41 of the EFCC Act to remove the stay of proceedings. This was necessary because, as a legal luminary told TheNEWS, "If you are rich and have access to good lawyers, they would frustrate you through interlocutory injunctions."
When suspects could no longer stay proceedings, they then settled for plea bargaining. "That was how that concept entered the Nigerian criminal justice system," an EFCC source confided in this magazine.
Soon after the establishment of the EFCC, Ribadu became a front-page news item with the successful arrest of those involved in the world’s biggest advance fee fraud case, involving the sum of $242m from a Brazilian bank, and their subsequent prosecution.
Brushing aside intimidation and overt blackmail from the principal actors in 419 transactions, the EFCC secured the conviction of all those involved.
First to be sentenced was Mrs. Amaka Anajemba and some other accused persons, who pleaded guilty. Chief Emmanuel Nwude and Mr. Nzeribe Okoli, the stars of the scam, were the next to be convicted for duping the Brazilian banker, Mr. Nelson Sakaguchi. They also forfeited all their ill-gotten wealth.
While Nwude was made to vomit over $110 m and pay $10m as fine, Anajemba forfeited $45.45m and paid $5m as fine. Physical assets running into billions of naira were also seized from them.
An elated Ribadu would later present Sakaguchi the equivalent of $17m (N2.3b), being the first instalment of the recovered money.
"The fact that we were able to secure these convictions, in spite of the tremendous obstacles put on our way by the accused persons and other fraudulent interests, is a testimony to the resilience of our judicial system. It is a testimony to our resolve to make sure that Nigeria is no longer regarded as a safe haven for 419ers and other criminal elements," Ribadu declared.
That singular feat sent operators of the lucrative 419 trade scampering for cover. On September 26 2005, Ribadu was in Hong Kong to return $4.48m to Juliana Ching, an 86-year-old lady, who was duped of the sum by a Nigerian fraudster. The octogenarian was a victim of a fictitious transaction initiated by one Basil Nkenchor, a Nigerian, purporting to be Alhaji Ibrahim Abba, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, (NNPC), sometime in June, 1995.
The said fraud was committed when Nkenchor dispatched classic ‘419’ letters to Mrs. Ching’s daughter, Vivian, seeking their assistance to transfer to her account abroad, the sum of $25m being funds supposedly overpaid by the Nigerian Government on some phoney procurement contracts, for which they were supposed to receive 25 per cent of the sum involved.
Between June 1995 and April 2000, while the scam lasted, the victims transferred about 320m Honk Kong Dollars in Nigerian banks provided by the 419 kingpin and his group. But on account of a petition from the Department of Justice, EFCC swung into action, arrested and interrogated the suspect and his accomplices. They confessed to the crime and repaid the entire sum.
Presenting the cheque, Ribadu assured the government and people of Hong Kong that the efforts of the Nigerian government to clean up Nigeria were beginning to be fruitful, as the country has been made unsafe for criminals and corrupt public officers.
The EFCC has valid reasons to celebrate. In less than six years of its operation, the agency has recorded major breakthroughs. Between May 2003 and June 2004, it recovered money and assets amassed from crime worth over $700 million.
The EFCC has also increased the nation’s revenue profile by about 20 per cent through its activities in the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the seaports. Through a collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service, the EFCC assisted in the recovery of N20billion in revenue. An equal volume of cash and asset was also recovered in respect of failed government contracts.
The commission’s impact has been felt in the fight against illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta, by helping to reduce the theft of between 300,000 - 500,000 barrels per day to 50,000 barrels per day. It is presently prosecuting over 20 persons involved in vandalisation of oil pipelines.
Observers have also rated the agency highly in the process of ensuring accountability in government, sanitising and stabilising the banking sector through loan recoveries and ensuring accountability in government.
Working with the full backing of international agencies like INTERPOL, EUROPOL and British Metropolitan Police, the EFCC has turned the heat on erring public officers and political office holders.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
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