Plot to Remove Ribadu Gets Messy

The plot to remove the chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, may hit the rocks as the Federal Government is in a dilemma over the legal roadblocks it has to scale.
Reports have suggested that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Mike Okiro, had been directed to issue a memo to the EFCC chairman directing him to proceed on a one-year course at the National Institute for Policy and Stra-tegic Studies (NIPSS), in Kuru, near Jos, Plateau State, in what is thought to be an indirect way of removing him from office.
However, the EFCC Act does not expressly permit the President or the IGP to send the chairman of the commission on compulsory study leave or remove him except on verifiable grounds – a development, THISDAY was told, has put the government in a fix.
The EFCC Act (2004) states in Section 3: (2) “A member of the Commission may at any time be removed by the President for inability to discharge the functions of his office (whether arising from infirmity of mind or body or any other cause) or for misconduct or if the President is satisfied that it is not in the interest of the Commission or the interest of the public that the member should continue in office.”
The President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua government, which has consistently stated its commitment to the rule of law and due process, is in a fix over the move, which many critics have described as a direct response to the recent arrest and commencement of trial of a former governor believed to be a very close associate of the President.
It has been suggested that the compulsory study leave would be deemed to be in the “national interest” intended to prepare Ribadu, an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), for a higher position in the police force.
Some of the legal experts who spoke with THISDAY yesterday faulted the move, saying the IGP does not have the power to force the EFCC chairman to proceed to NIPSS since Ribadu has a tenured position of the commission and reports directly to the president, not to the IGP.
They also faulted the timing of the development, with insinuations that it was intended to water down the anti-graft war.
Section 2 (1) (a) of the EFCC Act states that the chairman shall (i) be the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of the Commission. (ii) be a serving or retired member of any government security or law enforcement agency not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police or equivalent; and (iii) Possess not less than 15 years cognate experience.
“Is the EFCC reporting to the IGP?” a lawyer asked rhetorically, noting that Ribadu does not wear police uniform, does not collect salaries from the police and is only nominally a policeman until his tenure at EFCC comes to an end. “The EFCC is not a department under the police. The IGP cannot ask him to proceed on leave. Only the president can, but what would be the president’s excuse?”
After serving as chairman for four years, Ribadu was appointed for another term by former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, early this year.
One of the legal experts who spoke to THISDAY, a human rights lawyer, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, said the whole idea to force Ribadu out of office “is to bring somebody who will be more pliable to the whims and caprices of the former and serving corrupt officials.
"The plot is: stain him and remove him. It will fail because Nigerians already know that Ribadu has been trying his best. He is no longer just a police officer but chairman of the EFCC. According to law and that law explicitly lays down his term of office and how he can be removed. There is no room for a course under the law," he added.
On the argument that Ribadu is first a police officer before EFCC boss, Aturu noted that by law, the EFCC boss can arrest the Inspector General of Police if he is found to be involved in economic and financial crimes.
"Under the EFCC law, Ribadu cannot be subject to anybody's direction. He can arrest the IGP today if he is found to be involved in economic and financial crimes," he said.
Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, said from all indications, the Yar'Adua government was not interested in fighting corruption, saying that if it was, it would have set up a panel of enquiry to investigate all the contracts awarded by the Obasanjo administration which allegations of corruption have been mounting since the former president left office on May 29, 2007.
Fawehinmi lamented the President's "lack of interest" in the EFCC's crusade and successes in stamping out corruption from the country, adding: "We know that the President is a member of the PDP which is synonymous with corruption but if Ribadu is removed and posted somewhere, it means he has succumbed to the whims and caprices of the people who want to rubbish his government".
He said the only way the president could convince Nigerians that he was committed to the fight against corruption was for him to make the anti-graft agency independent and curb the excesses of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoaaka, SAN.
President of the West African Bar Association, Mr. Femi Falana, said it was “absolutely illegal” for the Yar'Adua administration to deceive Nigerians with the fact it was planning to send the EFCC boss to NIPSS because it wants to prepare him for the position of Inspector General of Police.
He advised the president to be courageous enough to go ahead if he wants to remove Ribadu “instead of hiding under the pretext of sending him to NIPSS for a course because it wants to prepare him for the Inspector General of Police position”.
Falana lamented that it was unfortunate that after three attempts by the president and the AGF to cripple the EFCC, it was the flimsy attempt of sending Ribadu to NIPSS for a course that they could come up with, asking: "If a person has a four-year tenure renewed, where else can a one-year course in NIPSS come in? The politics they are playing with the anti-corruption agencies clearly shows that the Yar'Adua administration lacks the will and capacity to prosecute the anti-corruption war. Removing Ribadu is totally illegal and senseless in the sense that here is an administration that constantly flaunts rule of law as one of its cardinal policies. There are a lot of problems with the administration. It does not know what it is doing. Under the law setting up the EFCC, Ribadu got a renewed tenure so where was it stated that he should attend a one-year course in the law?”
However, Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, said it is wrong to personalise the fight against corruption, adding that the transfer of the EFCC boss could not be the end of the fight against corruption.
“We cannot equate the effectiveness of the fight against corruption with the presence of Nuhu Ribadu. If the internal workings of the police dictate that he should be transferred on another duty, so be it. The heavens cannot fall and that cannot signify the end to the fight against corruption," he said. He added that since he became the Chairman of EFCC, Ribadu had some strong points for which he actually deserves commendations, but he also had some weak points for which he equally deserved some stick.
Keyamo listed the areas where the EFCC boss has failed as his inability to bring Obasanjo and his duaghter, Mrs Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, Mr. Andy Uba and other officials who served under the former administration, to trial.
He, however, disagreed with the fact that President Yar'Adua cannot remove the EFCC boss from office, saying that though Ribadu has a fixed term office under the EFCC Act, but the president could remove him whenever there was the need to do so.
Toeing Keyamo’s view, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, advised Nigerians not to personalise offices and the fight against corruption, noting that it would be unfortunate if the country was allowed to tread this familiar path again.
"It was in this country years back that some Nigerians said it was only Abacha that the cap fitted. Babangida was also eulogised to high heavens when he was in power. During the much-rumoured third term agenda of Obasanjo, a lot of people joined the bandwagon because they wanted him to remain in power beyond the normal term," he said.
He added that though the EFCC boss had been an efficient and effective police officer, the posting should be seen as an internal affairs of the force. "His posting is purely a force affair. It is the prerogative of those in charge of the Police Council to post officers. If tomorrow, he is made the IG, are we saying that the war against corruption will stop?" he asked.