The tension between former police officer
and erstwhile chairman of the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
Nuhu Ribadu and a former Inspector
General of Police, Mike Okiro has
continued to provide fodder for news
stories.
The two have constantly been at
loggerheads with Mr. Ribadu stating that
his persecution began after the
“despicable Okiro took over as the
Inspector General of Police”
Ribadu also stated that Okiro ordered the
removal of his car and bodyguard, leaving
him exposed and that during the period
there were two attempts on his life. Mr.
Okiro, in response to this, released a
statement saying that “Ribadu is an
inveterate liar.”
This has caused Mr. Ribadu’s camp to
issue a press statement of their own in
response to the allegations levelled
against the former EFCC chairman.
Read full statement below:
Our attention has been drawn to the
shameless lies a former Inspector
General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro
recklessly spewed to the media
yesterday. The cause of Mr. Okiro’s
anger, the statement, in a London
court, by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu that
James Ibori was instrumental to his
emergence as the Inspector General of
Police (IGP) needs no further
equivocation as it was an open secret
to everybody in the government circle
then.
If Okiro is now denying this in public,
there is no way he can deny this open
secret to a number of people including
an influential governor from the
North-Central then, and a couple of
other people who helped facilitate his
selection by Ibori. It was this same
shameless method of desperate
lobbying that Okiro, a chronic political
jobber and sycophant of the first order
would use in getting subsequent
appointments as Chief Security Officer
to the PDP national chairman and
later, regrettably, as the chairman of
the Police Service Commission.
The assertion by Okiro that Ribadu
wanted to be the IGP further
underlines the former IGP as a
perennial peddler of falsehood. The
truth is Nuhu Ribadu’s focus then was
consolidating on his modest efforts at
the EFCC, especially at a time when he
was working on high-profile cases,
including that of Okiro’s godfather,
James Ibori. We therefore challenge
Okiro to name those people he called
Ribadu’s friends that narrated the
fictitious story of Ribadu’s interest in
becoming the IGP to him.
The highest distortion in Okiro’s
statement, however, is his attempt to
rewrite the well-known and widely
documented assassination attempts on
the former EFCC chairman, and Okiro’s
hands in it all. It is ridiculous that
Okiro is now desperately trying to
paint himself in another colour after
all the schemings he orchestrated.
It beats our imagination that Okiro
would want a Nuhu Ribadu he was
fighting to destroy to report those
incidences to him. It would have been
a case of having a culprit to be a judge
in his own case. At the time, the trio of
Micheal Aondoakaa, the former
Attorney General of the Federation,
Okiro and Mrs Farida Waziri, the
former EFCc chairman, had created a
hell out of the world for Ribadu.
The
only sensible thing to do was to avoid
these characters and seek solace
somewhere else.
This notwithstanding, it is a blatant lie
that Okiro telephoned Ribadu “several
times” but that he did not answer his
calls. What Ribadu and other Nigerians
easily recall was an elated Okiro
rushing to address the press to deny
something he knew nothing about. The
bullet-riddled car Ribadu drove
during that unfortunate life
threatening incident is still there, if
Okiro or any other person would want
a further proof.
On the issue of withdrawal of Ribadu’s
personal security, if Okiro is suffering
from selective amnesia, let him be
reminded that that was exactly what
he did. he also redeployed Ibrahim
Lamorde out of EFCC, to Bauchi State
Police Command as Area Commander
in Ningi. He did the same thing to
other top EFCC operatives that Nigeria
spent a fortune to train as
investigators. One of them suspected
to be close to Ribadu was even locked
up for months in police custody. This
also belie his statement that as IGP he
could not have altered the postings of
police within the EFCC.
As for Okiro’s corruption credentials,
we would like to alert the retired IGP
that he is dancing naked in the gallery
as his nasty record is something
known to a lot of people. A man who
clearly reeks of corruption, is Okiro
denying that he is corrupt when we all
know he cannot account for the source
of the wealth he used in building a
shopping mall in Jabi, a hotel with
casino in Lugbe and a private school,
all in Abuja?
This is not to mention his property in
Lagos and Port Harcourt, while he was
still serving in the police. If a public
servant, one tasked with the
responsibility of protecting the lives of
Nigerians and instilling discipline in
the police, managed to amass such
wealth, what gut does he have to talk
of corruption? It is a national tragedy
that a man of such flawed character
has now been appointed to head an
important institution like the Police
Service Commission. May God rescue
Nigeria
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