Yemisi Izuora
Chief James Onanefe Ibori has denounced as horrible, revolting and totally false, the claim by Mr. Nuhu Ribadu in several newspapers and on-line publications of Monday 7th December 2015.
In a statement released by Chief Ibori’s Media office and signed by Mr. Tony Eluemunor, Chief Ibori’s Media Assistant, Ibori’s first reaction was to once again overlook the wild claim as Ribadu appears to be back at his game.
As the Senate and some security agencies appear to be asking questions about some unwholesome events at the EFCC, including the mismanagement and criminal diversion of funds from the sale of confiscated properties into personal pockets, Ribadu may have a need to attempt to burnish his fading image, fearing the investigations may ask questions about events during his tenure.
But he should be told that lying, against even an enemy, just to gain some unearned applause and perhaps fence off some approaching investigation and image disaster,must have a limit.
Ribadu claimed in the new reports: “Ibori approached me with $15million to stop his investigation. I called my people because the money was in big bags, which two people could not carry and we deposited it in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as evidence against him”.
This nonsensical statement has remained in the public domain only because some people have suspended their sense of disbelief and condemned themselves to every hogwash that Ribadu invents in the attempt spruce himself up in borrowed plums.
It is on record that Ribadu has made at least five statements over this same claim, and no single one agreed with another.
Also both Ibrahim Lamorde (the immediate past EFCC Chairman( and one James Garba, a CBN staff then seconded to the EFCC, made police statements which contradicted Ribadu’s. Even Senator Andy Uba said in a statement that EFCC collected the said money from his house.
Nigerians should know that it was the money from Obasanjo’s Third Term Tenure elongation bid that was dressed up as a bribe just to demonize Ibori. Some five billion dollars were employed to bribe the national and state legislatures to support the accursed project, with certain individuals receiving from N50 to N200 million.
The attempt to shoot Ibori down began in 2003, when some PDP Governors were opposed to Obasanjo’s second term bid.
That money, sourced from wherever, was used against Ibori, as part of that long-time bring Ibori down project . We challenge any newspaper or magazine to check all the statements on this bribery allegation and see how each of them, including Ribadu’s five different statements, howls to Ribadu himself: “you are a damned liar”.
The statement challenged the journalists to please hasten to prove us liars by looking into those statements.
The report said “In this latest report, Ribadu told another damned lie: “I arrested Ibori and prosecuted him. Since his friend was in power, they removed me, sent me to a school as a student where I was once a teacher”.
Nasir el-Rufai has called this tale a terrible lie. El-Rufai charged in “The Accidental Public Servant” that Ribadu had moved against the late President Umar Yar’Adua, arresting some Local Government Chairmen from Katsina State, on trumped up charges and told Ribadu he had over stepped every boundry of decency, (page 359) “You want me to be President because I am your friend, not because you think I am quite different or better than Yar’Adua”.
El-Rufai added, (because of Ribadu’s actions against Yar’Adua) “things have really gone bad for me and all of us”. In fact, El-Rufai’s title for that section of the book is telling: “Umaru Asks Nuhu For Support; The Beginning of Our Problems”.
Yet, in two different books: “My Story; My Vision” by Ribadu himself and in Wale Adebanwi’s “A Paradise for Maggots”, Ribadu never mentioned his quixotic actions against Yar’Adua and the repercussions against him and friends. Instead, he claimed that he was fighting corruption and Yar’Adua went after him after he arrested Chief James Onanefe Ibori. Azubuike Ishiekwene in “The Trial of Nuhu Ribadu” failed to note that Ribadu acted corruptly against Yar’Adua and so Yar’Adua had the most cogent reasons for not wanting Ribadu as head of EFCC.
Signed, Tony Eluemunor, Media Assistant to Chief James Onanefe Ibori.