Ribadu rejectes Waziri’s Charge on Obasanjo’s Third Term Agenda A former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, has rejected the inference made by his immediate successor, Mrs. Farida Waziri, that he used the commission to push for the aborted third term agenda of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo. In a statement issued by Ribadu Thursday evening in Abuja, the former EFCC boss said he deliberately avoided going after governors and public servants from the opposition to avoid charges of bias or doing the bidding of the government. “It is saddening that after all the damage inflicted on the operations and credibility of the EFCC by Mrs. Waziri, she turns back to abuse the young men and women who had put in all their energy in cleaning up our country especially during that critical time, by dismissing their work and sacrifice,” he said. On the issue that EFCC under his leadership was used to push through the aborted third term agenda, Ribadu said: “It is evident that Mrs. Waziri, who was nowhere near EFCC at the time is ignorant of what transpired.” He said his attention had been drawn to the press statement issued by Waziri in a reaction to statements credited to Obasanjo. “As I had cause to state in a recent article on my stewardship of the EFCC, we almost deliberately avoided going after governors and public servants from the opposition to avoid charges of bias or doing the bidding of the government. “Moreover, we halted our work on politically exposed persons throughout the period of the third term debacle, to insulate and protect the integrity of the commission. “EFCC was not about Nuhu Ribadu. Rubbishing its work, therefore, is like insulting all the thousands of its operatives across the country who put their lives on the line to make Nigeria a better country. If Mrs. Waziri has a personal score to settle with anybody, she should direct her attack at that person but not the organisation. “While I have tried not to comment on the activities of the EFCC or my successors in office to avoid subjectivism, I however find it expedient to clear my name of the careless and mischievous references made by Mrs Waziri. “I am therefore writing this with utmost reluctance, public debate having been polluted with deliberate tincture of amnesia, necessitating for the umpteenth repetition of a simple fact that should have sank in once and for all. “It is sad that merchants of falsehood keep recycling crooked statements to the point of a cliche, in spite of attempts at clarifications. “Firstly, it is not correct that I worked under Mrs. Waziri, as she has always claimed. This is a naked lie that she keeps flaunting to seek undue relevance and validate her own appointment. “At no time in my career did I work under the same section or unit as her. In fact, contrary to the Waziri’s claim that she ‘trained’ me, it was I that actually lectured her and others on fraud investigation and prosecution when she was newly posted as Head of Special Fraud Unit, even though she was my senior in rank. I was then the Head of Prosecution at the tribunals under the leadership of Mr. Sunday Ehindaro, then CP Legal,” he said.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 07:09:57 +0000
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