IG orders Ribadu to proceed on 1-yr course

Lanre Adewole, Abuja - 25.12.2007

IG orders Ribadu to proceed on 1-yr courseTHE battle to sack the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, may have been shifted to his immediate constituency where fresh plot to ease him out of office is allegedly coming from the top hierarchy of the Nigeria Police Force.

While politicians who are not comfortable with his activities are said to have been pressurising President Umaru Yar’Adua to sack the anti-corruption chief, the leadership of the police force, which is reportedly uncomfortable with his profile, is said to be spear-heading the new angle of “the war against Ribadu” project.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the plot was designed to ease Ribadu out of office without raising any suspicion in the public. According to sources, Ribadu’s journey out of office, according to those behind the plot, would start with a year course in the Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, in Jos, Plateau State.

While away in Jos, where he is expected to be fully engrossed in the course on a full-time basis while an acting chairman would be appointed from the police, with a commissioner of police from the SouthWest, already penciled in.

Sources further revealed that the leadership of the police moved to give vent to the plot when the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, wrote to Ribadu, seeking a meeting with him on the planned course.

Ribadu reportedly got the letter on Thursday, December 13 and he reportedly honour-ed the call the same day, where Okiro was said to have told him of the plan to send him to a full-time course in Kuru, while at the same time enumerating the accruable benefits of such course to the EFCC boss.

The police boss was said to have hinted Ribadu that he was being picked for the course as a way of preparing him for eventual ascension to the post of the Inspector General of Police.

A senior police officer, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the development, but said that it was not a ploy to ease Ribadu out of the EFCC.