Excerpt:
"is Okiro denying that he is corrupt when we all know he cannot account for the source of the wealth he used in building a shopping mall in Jabi, a hotel with casino in Lugbe and a private school, all in Abuja? This is not to mention his property in Lagos and Port Harcourt, while he was still serving in the police. If a public servant, one tasked with the responsibility of protecting the lives of Nigerians and instilling discipline in the police, managed to amass such wealth, what gut does he have to talk of corruption? It is a national tragedy that a man of such flawed character has now been appointed to head an important institution like the Police Service Commission. May God rescue Nigeria" - Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, Media Assistant to Mallam Nuhu RibaduTo enjoy the rest of the story, click to continue
Former EFCC chairman Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has responded to former Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro calling him corrupt and a shameless liar. This devastating response comes after Mike Okiro said yesterday that Ribadu’s allegations about him (Okiro) being behind two assassination attempts on his (Ribadu) life were all lies. Okiro said in a statement released yesterday that Ribadu is an inveterate liar and desperately wanted to be IG.
See Ribadu’s response through a press statement by his Media Assistant...
Our attention has been drawn to the shameless lies a former
Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro recklessly spewed to the media
yesterday. The cause of Mr. Okiro's anger, the statement, in a London court, by
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu that James Ibori was instrumental to his emergence as the
Inspector General of Police (IGP) needs no further equivocation as it was an open
secret to everybody in the government circle then. If Okiro is now denying this
in public, there is no way he can deny this open secret to a number of people
including an influential governor from the North-Central then, and a couple of
other people who helped facilitate his selection by Ibori. It was this same
shameless method of desperate lobbying that Okiro, a chronic political jobber
and sycophant of the first order would use in getting subsequent appointments
as Chief Security Officer to the PDP national chairman and later, regrettably,
as the chairman of the Police Service Commission.
The assertion by Okiro that Ribadu wanted to be the IGP
further underlines the former IGP as a perennial peddler of falsehood. The
truth is Nuhu Ribadu's focus then was consolidating on his modest efforts at
the EFCC, especially at a time when he was working on high-profile cases,
including that of Okiro's godfather, James Ibori. We therefore challenge Okiro
to name those people he called Ribadu's friends that narrated the fictitious
story of Ribadu's interest in becoming the IGP to him.
The highest distortion in Okiro's statement, however, is his
attempt to rewrite the well-known and widely documented assassination attempts
on the former EFCC chairman, and Okiro's hand in it all. It is ridiculous that
Okiro is now desperately trying to paint himself in another colour after all
the schemings he orchestrated. It beats our imagination that Okiro would want a
Nuhu Ribadu he was fighting to destroy to report those incidences to him. It
would have been a case of having a culprit to be a judge in his own case. At
the time, the trio of Micheal Aondoakaa, the former Attorney General of the
Federation, Okiro and Mrs Farida Waziri, the former EFCc chairman, had created
a hell out of the world for Ribadu. The only sensible thing to do was to avoid
these characters and seek solace somewhere else. This notwithstanding, it is a
blatant lie that Okiro telephoned Ribadu "several times" but that he
did not answer his calls. What Ribadu and other Nigerians easily recall was an
elated Okiro rushing to address the press to deny something he knew nothing
about. The bullet-riddled car Ribadu drove during that unfortunate life
threatening incident is still there, if Okiro or any other person would want
further proof.
On the issue of withdrawal of Ribadu's personal security, if
Okiro is suffering from selective amnesia, let him be reminded that that was
exactly what he did. He also redeployed Ibrahim Lamorde out of EFCC, to Bauchi
State Police Command as Area Commander in Ningi. He did the same thing to other
top EFCC operatives that Nigeria spent a fortune to train as investigators. One
of them suspected to be close to Ribadu was even locked up for months in police
custody. This also belie his statement that as IGP he could not have altered
the postings of police within the EFCC.
As for Okiro's corruption credentials, we would like to
alert the retired IGP that he is dancing naked in the gallery as his nasty
record is something known to a lot of people. A man who clearly reeks of
corruption, is Okiro denying that he is corrupt when we all know he cannot
account for the source of the wealth he used in building a shopping mall in
Jabi, a hotel with casino in Lugbe and a private school, all in Abuja? This is
not to mention his property in Lagos and Port Harcourt, while he was still
serving in the police. If a public servant, one tasked with the responsibility
of protecting the lives of Nigerians and instilling discipline in the police,
managed to amass such wealth, what gut does he have to talk of corruption? It is a national tragedy that a man of such
flawed character has now been appointed to head an important institution like
the Police Service Commission. May God rescue Nigeria
Abdulaziz Abdulaziz
Media Assistant to Mallam Nuhu Ribadu
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