Ribadu Didn’t Go On Vacation For 8 Years

By Dotun Oladipo - 05.01.2008

The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who has been asked to proceed on a one-year course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), has never gone on annual vacation or course since his appointment as the boss of the anti-corruption agency eight years ago.

Sources told Saturday Tribune during the week that since his appointment as the EFCC boss by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ribadu, now an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), has not gone on leave.

It was also learnt that Ribadu, who was appointed the EFCC boss as an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), had been promoted through the ranks without going on a single course as demanded by the police service rules.

A source in the Presidency said what actually saved the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Sir Mike Okiro, from being ridiculed over the Ribadu issue was that he had done a memo to President Umaru Yar’Adua on the issue of police officers not going on course as mandated by the police rules.

Okiro, Presidency sources said, wrote Yar’Adua that he was baffled that so many police officers get promoted without undergoing the required courses.

In the memo, said to be his third to the President after his appointment, Okiro reportedly sought the approval of Yar’Adua for all officers to be allowed to go on courses for their grades.

In the said memo, the police boss reportedly argued that there was no way an officer would perform creditably in his designated position(s) without being sufficiently equipped for such position.

A source said, “Courses of such nature as Ribadu is due to undergo are normal for officers at his level in all services, the military inclusive.

“There is no way you can become a general in any of the services without attending either NIPSS or the National War College.

“Even within the EFCC where you have 392 officers and men of the Nigeria Police working, there is none of them that has been promoted that has not gone on the requisite courses.”

In this regard, Okiro sought the President’s approval that all officers should attend such compulsory courses and that any of them that fails a promotion examination twice should be shown the way out of the force.

He got the President’s approval. But apart from this, Yar’Adua was also said not to be pleased with the conduct of Ribadu in his altercation with Okiro on the course issue.

The President was said to be angry with Ribadu for displaying attitudes that portrayed him as being beyond regulation by Okiro.

Ribadu reportedly told Okiro after he was told about the course that Okiro needed the approval of the President before sending him on course.

He also reportedly called Okiro, about one hour after the police boss told him about the course issue, that he was not going to proceed to NIPSS.

These developments, Aso Rock sources said, reportedly angered Yar’Adua, who was not in Abuja when Okiro briefed Ribadu on the issue.

When he was told, Yar’Adua reportedly said that all policemen, no matter the posting, were still under the IGP who should give them directions.

On who is likely to replace Ribadu in case the President decides that he should be removed as EFCC chairman and the police asked to produce a successor, a source said that the Presidency was already studying the background and curriculum vitae of another AIG whose name could not be confirmed as at press time.

The source said that none of those that had earlier been mentioned in the media would get the job, going by recent developments.

It was also learnt during the week that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, his former Special Adviser on Domestic Affairs, Dr. Andy Uba; and Ribadu met over the decision to send Ribadu on course.

Sources said they met on Saturday. They agreed that Obasanjo should intervene to ensure Ribadu does not go on the course scheduled to start in February.

Developments on Thursday indicated that the policemen working in the EFCC did not attend the scheduled meeting with Okiro.

Though the commission’s Director of Operations, Alhaji Ibrahim Lamorde, said he was in Lagos and was not aware of the meeting, Okiro has rescheduled the meeting for next week.

Okiro has directed one of his deputies to write a memo to the policemen inviting them to the meeting.