Ise Oluwa Ige
23 November 2008
Abuja — SOME prominent legal practitioners including former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief O C J Okocha (SAN), yesterday, described as lawful the arrest of ex-Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Nuhu Ribadu, on his graduation day. But they were quick to add that the arrest was strange although they noted that he was being served his own cup of coffee. Other lawyers who spoke with Sunday Vanguard on the matter include Abuja based lawyer, Chief Chris Uche (SAN) and an Ibadan-based member of the inner bar, Chief Niyi Akintola.
According to Uche: "What goes round comes round. Ribadu in his own time would not have imagined that there would be a day like this.
"You would remember that few months ago, he chased some lawmakers into the court premises in Abuja.You would also remember that people were being arrested in places that should be respected. And what is even interesting is that Ribadu should go to court to seek the enforcement of his fundamental rights. "This is because in those days, when he wanted to arrest people and we went to court to ask for enforcement of fundamental rights, he was always branding those lawyers going to court as those assisting corrupt people and that we should have waited for our clients to be arrested first before going to court.
"So, it is good in our life time that a thing like this is happening so that whoever is there will know that no condition is permanent. I am not supporting what is happening to him. He is a very nice person. He meant well for this country when he was there. But all I am saying is that whatever you are doing, remember that one day, you will be at the receiving end.
"In any organization you are, remember that one day, you will no longer be there and the table will turn. Today (yesterday), he has been served his own cup of coffee for somebody arresting him at his graduation ceremony. He has done his arrest in holier places and more sanctimonious environment than this very one where he has been arrested.
"I just hope that the matter will be properly agitated in the law court. This is truly the operation of rule of law. And for Ribadu, I think he should take what is happening to him in the spirit of the motto which he carved out for EFCC and I quote with his permission "nobody is above the law."
But to Okocha, "Anybody who has been suspected to have committed an offence can be arrested wherever he is found by the law enforcement agency except within the precincts of the legislature or the courts. But I feel arresting Ribadu at his graduation ceremony is strange and unbecoming because this is a man whom everybody knows has tried to serve this country as Chairman of EFCC. Whatever may have been his difficulty, they do not need to embarrass him and his family and relations and friends by arresting him on his graduation day when he is finishing a course which the government sent him for.
"This appears to me to be another aspect of what we will call witch-hunting those who have tried to serve the country well. They could have arrested him in some other place. At least, he has a house. Again, if they do not arrest him today, he could be arrested tomorrow. Certainly such could disrupt activities of the institute considering that the institute of strategic studies is a world renowned institution for training of our top intelligentsia. I cannot fathom this".
Akintola agreed with the former NBA president that anybody suspected to have committed any offence could be arrested anywhere except inside the hallowed chambers of courts and legislative houses. He said that he sympathized with Ribadu but that Nigerians should be cautious in making comments about what is happening.
He said that there were a lot of things hidden from the public between EFCC under Ribadu and EFCC under Mrs Farida Waziri.
Akintola said that there was a time he was to go to court to compel the commission to prosecute about three South West governors whom serious indictments were entered against by the Ribadu regime.
The senior advocate said no one knew whether indeed those files were still alive or had been destroyed.
According to him, no one could say whether he turned those files and many others to Farida or whether they are still in his possession. He said that though Ribadu worked very hard , at the time he was there, he was Lord unto himself. Akintola explained that before the former EFCC boss was booted out of office, he did a three-page article asking him to mellow down but that he would not listen.
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