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Backstage 18 August, 2008
August 11, 2008 11:06, 109 views
The expected finally happened last week. To a privileged class of Nigerians in the know of the intrigues in government concerning the fate of former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, it came as no surprise that the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Police Service Commission, demoted the police officer from Assistant Inspector General of Police to Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Ribadu was the tough anti-corruption fighter who fearlessly took many powerful politicians, bankers, businessmen and even former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun to the cleaners for dipping their kleptomaniac fingers into the public till.
In Nigeria, where even governments have not proven they do not celebrate corruption, what Ribadu was doing then could not but be an aberration. He had committed a grievous offence and he must pay for it.
For the erstwhile EFCC boss, it is pay-back time, that is, time to make him pay for daring to confront the nation’s fabulously wealthy politicians who dictate even who becomes the President of Nigeria.
First, the police top hierarchy removed Ribadu as EFCC Chairman and dispatched him to Kuru, Jos, for the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies course. And last Wednesday, the PSC humiliated him with a relegation by two ranks.
All these are still pushes, the shove may just come earlier than envisaged as the new EFCC leadership, security agencies and Ribadu’s police constituency pore through his activities when he was in office. Ribadu’s antagonists are not using a fine toothcomb for the effort; that would not achieve the desired effect. They are employing a ‘computerised fraud detector’ and God help Ribadu that they do not pin the slightest of offences on him. This week’s cover story titled “Operation Destroy Nigeria” is a gripping report of the high-wire plot to send the popular and revered crime fighter to jail. It is written by BAMIDELE JOHNSON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR.
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