FG ORDERS EFCC TO PROBE OWN EX-BOSSES

• As Ribadu urges Nigerians to ‘seize power from tyrannical leadership’

The Ibrahim Lamorde-led Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) may be going on the offensive against its immediate past chairpersons, in the persons of Farida Waziri and her predecessor, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

Indications to this effect emerged recently when a source in the office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, hinted Sunday Newswatch that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration is set to cleanse the regime of all allegations of misdeeds, including alleged corruption at the EFCC.

This is sequel to the opening of an investigation by the House of Representatives into alleged sharp practices at the Commission over assets seized and sold by the anti-graft agency.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, had recently ordered the House Committee on Drug, Financial Crimes and Narcotics to probe the status of all assets seized by the Commission.

Sunday Newswatch gathered that the interim report of a probe panel instituted by Mohammed Adoke revealed that a lot of money raised from donor agencies, since the establishment of the Commission in 2004, could not be accounted for by the anti-graft body, a situation that has become worrisome to the presidency.

Apart from the alleged mismanagement of huge funds from donor agencies, it was also revealed in the report, according to our sources, that a lot of assets seized from ‘corrupt’ politicians had been resold at give-away prices to some cronies, friends and relations of some EFCC agents, while proceeds from properties confiscated and sold have allegedly disappeared.

Worse still is the allegation that some buildings hitherto seized in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja during Ribadu’s regime were sold off without the knowledge of the Ministry of Justice, which is supposed to oversee the affairs of the Commission.

However, informed sources within the Presidency were of the view that the target of this renewed war on corruption may actually be Ribadu, and not Waziri.

Top sources within security circles say the new move might not be unconnected with Ribadu’s alleged romance with the leadership of the yet-to-be-registered All Progressives Congress (APC), including former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, and the leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Bola Tinubu.

One of the sources also explained that the Presidency is not comfortable with the way Ribadu has been speaking against the Jonathan administration.
Ribadu had recently carpeted the regime for not implementing his committee’s report on oil subsidy.

“They also found out that he is working with the APC for 2015. They said he held a meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwwal, over his presidential ambition. So, it is obvious they are after Ribadu.

“Jonathan has no axe to grind with Farida, but they just have to bring her in to the picture in order to make the job more authentic.  I bet you, none of the parties can ignore the incontrovertible facts in the report, originated from the SSS and EFCC itself,” the source said.

Another Sunday Newswatch source had this to say: “I think they will free Farida and indict Ribadu because the report is saying that he did not account for all the money raised by donor agencies for the EFCC during his tenure.

“Waziri’s problem is supposedly that she failed to bring the issues to the notice of government and did not take action by probing Ribadu.”

The EFCC and SSS documents given to the Presidency were said to have revealed, in graphic details, financial recklessness allegedly perpetuated during Ribadu’s tenure, but which was on Waziri’s table for over six months, while she refused to treat it.

But an official of the anti-graft body, who worked with Waziri, was quick to clear her of alleged wrong doings.

“I am aware that Waziri did not refuse to nail Ribadu. In fact, she was hell bent on prosecuting Ribadu, but she was stopped by the President, who insisted that Ribadu should have a soft landing back into the country.

“You know that Ribadu was hounded by the Musa Yar’Adua regime. He left Nigeria when the police were to deal with him. He was even demoted in the Force. But Jonathan came after the death of Yar’Adua and saved Ribadu.

“Waziri wanted to nail him at all cost, it was Jonathan that gave him all sorts of appointments to please the US and EU. He was under pressure from the US and that is why he couldn’t deal with the situation.

“Ribadu later back-stabbed the President and Jonathan became so hurt. He felt so bad that Ribadu could join the ACN and even run against him for the Presidency,” the source said.

Exonerating Waziri, some informed sources within the Presidency said she tried all she could but was frustrated by the US and Jonathan.

Some of the sources even claimed that Waziri till date, still has some documents, including memos and correspondents from the Presidency and Ministry of Justice to back up her stance on the case.

“The SSS and the EFCC do not stand a chance against the woman, unless some people want to open a can of worms, which we are sure that the President himself cannot risk at this time,” he stated.

However, when contacted, the Head of Media at EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, said he was not aware that such a probe was on-going and that, if there was any, the anti-graft agency is yet to receive any such directive from either the Presidency or the office of the Attorney-General.

Meanwhile, Ribadu has remained undaunted and unabated in knocking the Jonathan administration. While speaking yesterday in Zaria, Kaduna State, he called on Nigerians to stand up and rescue the country from the hand of tyrants, irrespective of their ethno-religious backgrounds, in order to save the nation from sinking.

Delivering the keynote address at a public lecture organised by the Students’ Representative Council of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, the former anti-corruption Czar stated that Nigerians must rise against exclusionists who are dividing them and preventing them from forming a formidable political platform with a view to taking over power.

According to Ribadu, himself an alumnus of ABU, “while the decision to challenge unpopular policies is laudable, absolute orderliness is not expected from angry young men on the streets. This is where we must rub minds, like a family, to find a way out of this mess;

how do we end this reign of corruptions and insensitivity to the plights of the common man without subjecting any of us to the bullets of those asked to send us back to our houses in which we find miseries and hopelessness?”

He continued:

“How do we tell our political leaders that a thing is missing without getting shot?

I use ‘we’ because I’m just as passionate and concerned as you and you! I use ‘we’ because if we allow ourselves to be divided into ‘us’ and ‘them’, the possibility of winning this war is nil.

“The exclusionists who invented ‘them’ to stop us from forming a formidable political ‘we’ are the people we must fight, and there is just one way to achieve this: Citizen Engagement!

“Here again, we have a task before us: Citizenship Mobilisation. The challenge ahead is enormous. The challenge is for us to form networks that will engage and destroy the evil missions of the exclusionists and agents of anarchy among us. In time of anarchy, everybody is a politician.”

Ribadu added: “This is a time of anarchy. In a time like this, we should have no identities other than ordinary citizen. We are citizens of a world challenged, a people confused and abused, a nation whose resources is misused by leaders whose major worry is the amount of dollars in their bank accounts. The situation is one of psychological abuse, existential abuse. My antidote for this monstrous reality is also psychological:

“First, while it has become really difficult to set aside our ethnic identities in discharging our civic responsibilities, we must know that in a democratic space, our only identity, especially when we gather around ballot boxes and in the service of the nation is our citizenship: “Nigerian”. We must be conscious of this identity, it defines a patriot.
“Second, always have in mind that politics is not magic. And that people are responsible for the governments that happen to them. If the electorate wear their patriotism to vote in a popular candidate, the electoral officers too must know that their manipulation of figures is a betrayal of trust of their fellows awaiting them at home. No candidate can rig an election without complicity of the people.

“Third, offline and online, political engagements are compulsory ventures of every citizen of a troubled country. Though, I have always maintained that Nigeria is a Third World country and, for this, we must not be carried away on the social media. A percentage of Nigerians who have no Internet access is important. In every decision, and agenda, we aspire to pursue, they must be in the know.

“Also, membership of social and political groups and networks including community volunteerism is the surest way of fixing our weakened bonds and salving our rivalries. The more we meet to discuss personal and public issues without pandering to the designs of the exclusionists, the more we understand and forestall propagandas fashioned against us. The new Nigerian, irrespective of his origin, must be a part of any network that analyses and tries to influence public policies or government.

The former presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), who addressed the mammoth crowd of university students on the topic: ‘Political Engagement: A New Approach’, said Nigerian youths had lost hope in the leadership of the country, but that the youths must not allow themselves to be drawn into any campaign that attempts to colour the internal borders of their country.

“We are doomed as a nation, the moment the youth get hoodwinked by the bickering of bitter politicians, who ride to relevance on sentiments that only inspire distrust among citizens. My experience so far in politics has taught me that age does not guarantee maturity to responsibly play the role of a patriot in an atmosphere of tensed political antagonisms. Thankfully, this is the Age of the Internet; borderless interactions in and out of cyberspace.

“This Age of Information has revealed that no people can ever be entirely wrong at the same time; the evil among us are so because of certain disorders in their superficial orientations, education or even, mental state. That Boko Haram insurgency was launched in the North does not incriminate the entire northerners or Muslims; neither is kidnapping and the previously ill-famed militancy in the South, crimes of the entire people of the Niger Delta. Similarly, the recent massacre of our security officers by certain elements of the largely good-natured Eggon people of Nasarawa State must not be adopted in interpreting the ethnic identities of these people.

Speaking earlier, the Secretary of the Northern Elders Forum and one-time Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University,  Professor Ango Abdullahi, said after almost 52 years of independence, Nigeria ought not to be where it is presently, adding that the major problem of Nigeria was leadership, which he said, was responsible for destruction of the legacies of the nation’s lost heroes.

He, added that Nigerians should make up their minds as to whether they want the country to remain as one entity or otherwise

Source: Daily Newswatch