The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has denied that its chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has houses in Abuja and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The commission, in a statement by Ribadu�s Chief of Staff, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi, said the EFCC boss had only a house in his village near Yola, Adamawa State.
It added that Ribadu also had a yet-to-be developed plot of land in Katampe, an undeveloped district of Abuja which he acquired in 1998.
Two lawyers – Mr. Ogboli Charles and Ugochukwu Ogbuagwu – had in a suit filed at an Abuja Federal High Court put the cost of the two houses alleged to be owned by Ribadu at N450m.
They asked the court to compel the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, to investigate and prosecute the EFCC boss.
The statement by Olorunyomi reads in part, �Apart from his official EFCC account, Ribadu does not operate a bank account anywhere else in the world. He hereby grants permission to anyone who finds that he has assets other than those he has declared to seize them without further reference to him.
�When his official residence, which belonged to the Federal Capital Development Authority was, in line with the policy of the last administration, offered for sale along with other houses in the area, Ribadu could not muster the funds to purchase the said house.
�However, sensitive to the possibility of a conflict arising if he approached banks for a loan, given his position as EFCC chairman, Ribadu nearly lost the house until his father-in-law, Prof. Iya Abubakar, intervened.
�It was the professor who bid for the house at a public auction and took a facility from his bankers, Fidelity Bank Plc, to purchase the house, which cost N44m. As it is, Ribadu and his family are presently living in the Mambilla Street house thanks to his father-in-law. All records pertaining to this transaction are available at the FCDA for anyone who wishes to check.�
According to Olorunyomi, Ribadu, as a public officer, had dutifully sworn to oaths declaring his assets as and when due.
�The declarations are public documents and can be accessed at the appropriate agency for purposes of verification, seizure of undeclared assets and prosecution if need be,� he said.
Olorunyomi noted that Ribadu was saddened that �otherwise gentlemen lend themselves as vehicles for purveyance of obviously false allegations that the commission has not been making annual renditions to the National Assembly in line with Sections 35 and 36 of the EFCC Act, 2004.
He added, �The simplest check that people can carry out is to ask their representatives in both chambers of the National Assembly to find out whether the commission had ever neglected to comply with those provisions of the Act and if indeed it has been submitting details of its audited accounts and a compendium of its activities, every year since its inception.�
The Chief of Staff said that Ribadu was saddened by the fact that enemies of the anti-corruption war would stop at nothing in their bid to destroy the image of the EFCC.
He added that the EFCC would welcome the opportunity offered by the lawyers to deal squarely with �the wild and resurgent allegations from which have regrettably spawned endless pepper soup joint plots for the Nigerian theatre of the absurd.�