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Some fresh facts have emerged about why
the reported moves to engage Nuhu
Ribadu former chairman of the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC as
an aide of President Goodluck Jonathan
did not materialize .
Newsdiaryonline.com learnt in Abuja
that President Jonathan who was
generally known to be in touch with
Ribadu actually explored the possibility
of bringing the former EFCC boss into
his government as his special adviser
who will oversee the anti corruption and
good governance campaigns.
Highly informed sources however revealed
that the talks between Jonathan and
Ribadu which actually went very far
crashed all of a sudden on the heels of
the president failure to meet the
conditions Ribadu gave before taking up
any offer .The former EFCC boss urged
the president to take some steps which
he believed would revitalize the
‘stuttering anti-corruption war.’
Newsdiaryonline.com
sources said Ribadu gave three
conditions which he said should be met
before taking up any appointment.One of
the conditions was that the President
should reorganize the Independent
Electoral Commission,INEC and pointedly
sack Professor Maurice Iwu as a clear
sign of seriousness towards credible
election. The second condition Ribadu
stipulated was that the president
should reorganize the Nigerian Police
Force,NPF . Third , the former EFCC boss
also told the President to reorganize
the current EFCC : if this condition had
been carried out, it would have seen to
the sacking of Farida Waziri , the
incumbent chairman.
Newsdiaryonline.com
learnt that former President Olusegun
Obasanjo got wind of the talks between
Ribadu and Jonathan.According to
sources, the former president kicked
against the attempts to sack
Iwu.`Obasanjo felt Iwu should not be
sacked’,newsdiaryonline.com
source said. But the president however
went ahead to relieve Iwu of his
appointment and appointed Professor
Attahiru Jega as the new INEC boss, a
move that was widely applauded. But that
was all the president was ready to do.He
failed to reorganize the EFCC and the
police in order to pave way for
Ribadu’s ideas of anti corruption war.
``Since the president failed to do what
he requested aside from the sacking of
Iwu Ribadu felt there was no need to
take up any appointment.Some of his
friends also told Ribadu not to join
this regime which is not taking any bold
move to fight corruption’’,the source
said.
Attempts to get official reactions to
this story failed as Ima Niboro, the
presidential spokesman failed to respond
to an sms this evening from
newsdiaryonline.com.But the sources
who spoke earlier failed to mention what
others have said amount to Jonathan
doing Ribadu some favours by ensuring,
ahead of his return from exile ,the
withdrawal of charges against him at the
Code of Conduct Tribunal -which was
trying the former EFCC boss for
allegedly failing to declare his
asset.Ribadu described the charges as
wicked lies .His dismissal from the
police was also converted to retirement
with his rank as AIG of police which the
late Umaru YarAdua regime robbed him of
later restored by the Jonathan regime
It was learnt that as soon as some of
his associates learnt of the plot to
drag him into Jonathan’s government,
they also mounted their
counter-pressure in order to dissuade
him from making what was seen as a
tactical blunder of serving a regime
that may see his image as anti
corruption czar suffer some irredeemable
damage.
As soon as Ribadu realized that
Jonathan was not ready to go the whole
hog, perhaps due to pressure from other
quarters, he chose to chart a different
course for himself.He later decided to
go into politics and to also join the
presidential race.One source claimed
Ribadu actually, perhaps out of
courtesy also informed President
Jonathan of his new plan to join the
presidential race. Sources close to the
former EFCC boss say it is just a matter
of time for the real shape of Ribadu’s
Presidential campaign to be unveiled.
The former EFCC boss was said to have
however encountered some problems from
some of his associates including Nasir
el Rufai the former minister of the
federal capital territory.Though the
true details of the problem have not
been revealed yet, it is believed some
concerted efforts have been made to
reconcile Ribadu and el Rufai.If any
progress has been made at all, sources
say it is minimal.`That is the problem
,now but we believe it will be overcome`
said an insider.One source said it
appears el Rufai does not believe Ribadu
should join the presidential race yet.
But key chieftains of the Action
Congress of Nigeria, ACN seem excited
about the prospect of Ribadu running for
president on their platform .Their game
plan will soon be revealed.They are only
waiting for Chief Odumegwu Ojugwu a
former presidential candidate of the
All Prgressive Grand Alliance APGA to
return to the country in order for ACN
to go full throttle with their
campaign,Newsdiaryonline.com was told.It
was learnt that APGA is soon to become
part of the new ACN in some kind of
political alliance towards the 2011
election.
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