Taye Obateru
23 November 2008
It was anti-climax for Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, erstwhile Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), yesterday, as his dream to graduate from the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State was aborted at the last minute.
Ribadu, who was initially seated in the hall along with other graduands, was literarily forced out of the hall as he was said to have been ordered to leave allegedly on orders from above. There were speculations that he was arrested and was being detained in his apartment at NIPSS.
According to reports, the Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Michael Kaase Andoakaa (SAN), was present at the time of Ribadu's arrest. It was rumoured that Andoakaa ordered the former EFCC chairman's arrest.
Yesterday, a rights group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, criticised the alleged arrest, saying it had written a powerful petition to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights based in Gambia to protest the action.
Just last Thursday, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had declined Ribadu's prayer to stop the police and the EFCC from arresting him. His prayer to the court had followed an invitation to him by the EFCC to report at its office to answer questions on some fundamental issues relating to his tenure at the commission.
Drama started yesterday at the NIPSS graduation when Ribadu, who was dressed in mufti (an ash coloured babanriga with black cap) unlike other police officers, rushed out of the hall where he had been seated exchanging pleasantries with friends and colleagues alike.
He was said to have been invited out by the chief security officer of NIPSS and taken to an unspecified place within the institute. A source quoted him as saying he was forced out of the hall with his family members and friends. The former EFCC boss had, in a brief interview with journalists before he was invited out of the hall, thanked God for the opportunity to attend the course.
The worst fear of observers who were curious about his disappearance up to minutes before the graduation proper was confirmed when the acting director of studies of the institute, Dr. Adamu Fika, announced that, although 65 people participated in the Senior Executive Course 30, two of them would not be graduating along with others. He mentioned Ribadu and Mr. Deinbo Briggs, a staff of NIPSS who had been enmeshed in an alleged camera theft saga during a foreign tour to China as a result of which he was initially withdrawn from the course and later reinstated pending conclusion of investigations into his case.
According to Fika, one of them (Briggs), said to have just undergone a surgery for pile, would not be graduating on health grounds while the other (Ribadu) was for other reasons which he did not specify. The announcement generated some disquiet within the hall leading to people discussing the matter in low tones. The denial of graduation is the climax of the controversy that surrounded his demotion from the rank of assistant inspector general of police to a deputy commissioner raising the question of his qualification for the course.
By the institute's rule, only police officers in the rank of commissioner and above are qualified to attend the Senior Executive Course. The institute initially expressed confusion over the matter but later resolved to allow him continue the course. At a pre-graduation press briefing, last Wednesday, acting director-general of NIPSS, Mr. James Opadiran, had assured that Ribadu would graduate. SERAP, yesterday, carpeted the government of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua over the alleged arrest and detention of Ribadu.
The non-governmental organisation, NGO, said that the arrest was the latest in a chain of shameful conducts by Yar'Adua government demonstrating that its alleged commitment to the rule of law was a ruse.
In the NGO's petition to the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights in Gambia to protest Ribadu's arrest, signed by its Executive Director, Mr Adetokunboh Mumuni, and addressed to the Special Rapporteurs on Human rights defender in Africa , Madame Reine ALAPINI-GANSOU, the organisation is urging the commission to "urgently intervene in this matter to ensure his immediate release and to stop further attacks, unlawful arrest and harassment of a prominent anti-corruption campaigner and human rights defender".
Said the letter: "On Saturday, November 22, 2008, Mr Nuru Ribadu was reportedly forcefully dragged out of the hall of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies by the security forces during a graduation ceremony.
"He is currently being held in his apartment and may have been tortured or ill-treated by the security agents of the Federal Government of Nigeria. According to reports, the Attorney General of the Federation was present at the time of Ribadu's arrest, and may have ordered Mr Ribadu's arrest by the security agents.
"The unlawful arrest followed the unjustified demotion of Mr Ribadu by the Nigerian Police Service Commission from the rank of an Assistant Inspector-General of Police to Deputy Commissioner of Police. Ribadu completed a year course at National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, and he may have been arrested to stop him from graduating. We are seriously concerned about the safety and well-being of Ribadu, and fear that his arrest are a reprisal for his efficient and diligent prosecution of official and political corruption while in office.
"Ribadu's arrest and detention is based solely on his human rights and anticorruption campaign while he was the Chairman of EFCC. We consider Mr Ribadu to be a human rights defender within the provisions of the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1998 (UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders).
"We believe his arrest and detention and continuing harassment is a serious violation of the provisions of the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders) adopted by the General Assembly in 1999.
"This Declaration sets down a series of principles and standards aimed at ensuring that states fully support the efforts of human rights defenders and ensure that they are free to conduct their activities for the promotion, protection and effective realization of human rights without hindrance or fear of reprisals.
Mr Ribadu's arrest and detention also violates several provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the UN Convention against Corruption and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Nigeria is a party. Specifically, Article 6 of the African Charter guarantees in broad terms the right to liberty and security. No one may be arbitrarily arrested or detained.
'We believe that Mr Ribadu's unlawful arrest and continuing harassment demonstrate the increasing intolerance of the Yar'Adua government for independent opinions and voices of criticism calling for accountability and transparency in a country that has witnessed pervasive political and official corruption and the impunity of perpetrators for decades.
Rather than arresting suspected perpetrators of high level official corruption, the government is persecuting innocent and hand-working human rights defender, while celebrating corrupt officials and shielding them from justice.
"The unlawful arrest and detention of a human rights and anti-corruption campaigner raises doubts about the willingness of the government of Nigeria to fight corruption and to uphold its good faith obligations to its citizens, including under the UN Convention against Corruption, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
"Ribadu's arrest and detention shows also the hypocrisy of a government supposedly committed to the rule of law, and hosting the 44th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in Abuja. Ribadu's arrest and detention is a direct affront to the meeting of the African Commission in Abuja , and is designed to undermine the Commission's authority and mandate
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