Hounded Out Of Nigeria

Nuhu Ribadu, ex-EFCC boss flees the country following alleged threat to his life

By Ernest Omoarelojie

For so long, Nuhu Ribadu, former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, held on bravely even as he suffered untold harassment and humiliation from especially his employers, the Nigeria Police. But like all mortals with limited endurance, the former anti-graft boss, who was recently prevented from graduating from the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, Plateau State, after completing his one year programme, succumbed to pressure and fled the country.

Worried family members who had not been able to reach Ribadu, last Wednesday told this medium that Ribadu may have sneaked out of the country following combined efforts by the police, certain agents of the Yar’Adua administration and in particular, some former governors he arraigned for graft, to humiliate him. Recently, gunshots were reportedly fired at his car while driving along the Jos Road, Abuja.

A close associate hinted that Ribadu may have left the country via the NADECO route, made popular by opponents of late General Sani Abacha, the country’s last military dictator. He is rumoured to have made his way to a western country.

Twenty-four hours before Ribadu fled the country, his counsel filed a suit at the ECOWAS Court in Abuja seeking to stop police authorities from further harassing him. A court in Abuja recently ruled against a case he filed against police authorities. The move, however, did not stop the police from taking the harassment to a brazen level on 22 November when police and NIPSS authorities practically bundled him out of the institution’s graduation ceremony. He was, for reasons which the institution’s director said bordered on ill-health, prevented from receiving his certificate even after he was already seated along with other graduates for the ceremony.

Shortly after the humiliation, police authorities invited him to Abuja for questioning on his role as head of EFCC. But Ribadu turned down the invitation, basing his action on the ground that he would rather wait for judgment in the suit he filed against the police over his demotion from Assistant Inspector-General to Deputy Commissioner, on 4 August. His refusal to honour the invitation heightened fears that it could become an additional impetus for further harassment.

Human Rights Watch, HRW, confirmed that beyond the harassment which Ribadu had constantly complained about, the former anti-graft crusader was actually shot at, as alleged, along the Jos Road, Abuja. The rights group, which described Ribadu’s treatment as an ‘escalating campaign of harassment’, observed that Ribadu’s travails took form after the arrest of James Onanafe Ibori, the stupendously wealthy former governor of Delta State. The America-based HRW described Ibori as being instrumental to the election of President Umar Yar’Adua, a reason perhaps why Ribadu’s harassment may have continued unabated. This prompted Georgette Gagnon, HRW Africa Director, to declare that the EFCC has been compromised seriously. “Despite promises from President Umar Yar’Adua that there was zero tolerance from his government to corruption, the sleaze watchdog (EFCC) has been seriously undermined,” Gagnon stated.

HRW also disclosed that when it called on police authorities to protect Ribadu, its spokesperson said the police had not received any plea for help from either Ribadu or the police bodyguards assigned to protect him.

Human Rights Watch is not the only group that appears miffed by Ribadu’s mistreatment. Gani Fawehinmi, Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, Femi Falana and many others have raised similar voices of condemnation. For Fawehinmi who is still recuperating in a London hospital, “the implication of Ribadu’s humiliation boils down to the fact that the Yar’Adua administration has succumbed to the stranglehold of corruption as manifested by the array of discredited former public officers around him”. While Soyinka described the development as a “consecration of national loot”, Falana asked Ribadu to take solace in the “enormous solidarity of the Nigerian people”.

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