How Inspector General Plotted My Assassination, By Ribadu

ALMOST a year after an alleged attempt on his life in Jos, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has pointed accusing fingers at a former Inspector General General of Police (IGP).
He also repeated an allegation that a former Governor of one of the Niger Delta States had offered him a bribe of $15 million, which, he says, he collected but kept at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to be used as evidence against the man.

Ribadu, who fled the country in the wake of the manhunt for him, to answer to corrupt practices while he headed the anti-corruption agency, was in the country last week and paid a condolence visit to the family of the late Lagos lawyer and rights activist, Chief Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi.

He had earlier been demoted and subsequently dismissed from the Police Force on account of alleged disobedience to lawful order. He is in court challenging all the official actions against him.

In a statement he made to the London Metropolitan Police (Metpol), and which transcript has found its way into Abuja, Ribadu said that his travails with the Nigeria Police and government began after he began the process of prosecuting the said former governor.

The former police officer wrote: "Whilst I was studying in Jos, an attempt was made on my life. One evening at about 6-6.30pm, I was driving alone on the road from Jos to Abuja in my car, which was a bulletproof vehicle. I noticed a little Japanese made of car following me.

"I pulled into a filling station and then pulled out again and noticed the same car, which had four (4) occupants, including the driver.

"The car pulled alongside me, the rear passenger window came down and one of the occupants aimed a pistol (firearm) at me and fired three (3) shots at my car. Fortunately, I was not hit and sped off."

He said he knew it was an assassination attempt on his life and decided to go back to Jos town, where he stayed for two or three hours, before returning to Abuja.

He continued: "I did not tell the police in Jos, because I believed (and still do) that they were behind the attempt on my life and when I say Police I mean the Inspector....

"If I went to any government agency, they would come under pressure if they helped me, people would lose their jobs.

"So I kept quiet and only told those close to me. The car still has the bullet marks."

Ribadu also narrated how a top official of government in the Justice Department went to the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru to tell the authorities that the President had allegedly directed that he (Ribadu) should not be allowed to graduate and given his certificate.

Ribadu returned to Abuja after the course at NIPSS and recounted how another attempt was made on his life.

"I was followed... from my house in Abuja and an effort was made to block my car, which I managed to avoid and get away," he said.

He disclosed to the London Police that after the second attempt on his life, he left the country for the United Kingdom in November 2008.

"I left because I would have been killed if I remained," he said.

According to him, the government allegedly began a rumour that he fled because he was wanted.

So, he returned in December and went to the EFCC headquarters, claiming that he did not see the EFCC boss, Mrs. Farida Waziri, on that visit but her aides said they had no question for him, but they would call him if she came.

"I remained in Abuja for about two (2) weeks to allow them time to contact me, but no one did. I left them (the EFCC) my telephone numbers, but remained in hiding whilst I was there. I returned to the United Kingdom in December 2009," he wrote.

Ribadu said he did not return to Nigeria since he left because he knew the charges brought against him were part of an effort to get him back to the country where a "further attempt would be made" on his life.

On the former governor who, he alleged, made financial overtures of $15 million to him, Ribadu said when he began investigating him, the man told him "that everybody was corrupt and that he was doing it because everybody else was doing it."

Ribadu admitted that he did not receive any direct pressure to stop the investigation of the former governor he described as "a likeable person," though they were neither friends nor enemies.

However, he said the former governor "was and remains a very powerful and influential figure in Nigeria, so much so that five (5) days after I had charged him in connection with our investigation, I was 'asked to go to school' and by that I mean I was taken off the case."

But aides of the former governor in Abuja pointed to a discrepancy in the story of how the alleged bribe of $15 million was given to Ribadu, stressing vaguely that the alleged bribery might not be true after all.

Though it was difficult to reach Ribadu over the veracity of the statement to the London Police, he alluded to it in a remark he made at the weekend to a newspaper in Lagos.

This was while denying allegations made by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN) that Ribadu was working against the interests of Nigeria or President Umaru Yar'Adua.

But Ribadu remarked: "I have never done any affidavit either in the UK or in Nigeria against the country. I challenge him (Aondoakaa) to produce the affidavit he was talking about.

"The only time I made a statement was when the Metropolitan Police invited me during their investigation of cases against (the former governor) and his associates for crimes they committed in the UK and other parts of the world."