Kalu Okwara
26 November 2008
Lagos — ACTION Congress (AC) said that the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Alhaji Nuhu Ribadu deserved the treatment he got last weekend at the graduation ceremony of the 30th course of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPPS), Kuru near Jos, Plateau State.
In a statement issued by the National Publicity Secretary of the AC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said although Ribadu was disgraced, it was a pay-back for those of them that used their authority to violate human rights.
AC said that the Kuru incident should serve as a sharp reminder of what can happen when people in authority paid only a lip service to the rule of law and allowed the security agencies to ride roughshod over innocent citizens.
"The presidency may deny all it can that it did not know anything about the crude way that Ribadu was bundled out of the graduation ceremony, but the truth is that those behind it felt they could do it because the government's so-called rule of law mantra is just a cliché meant to give the administration a semblance of governance..
"Having said that, we make bold to add that Ribadu, in his hey day at the head of the EFCC, would probably have done something worse than that..
"This is a man who used the police to drag former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, on the ground like a stray dog, even when he was still a suspect in a case of fraud preferred against him. After all, as a lawyer, Ribadu should have known that an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
"It is the same Ribadu, as he strutted the land like a colossus, who used the EFCC to illegally bar many qualified candidates from contesting in the 2007 elections, until the Supreme Court ruled against such act in the case involving former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, merely days to the polls.
"This is a man who, drunk with power, virtually re-wrote the Nigerian Constitution by illegally instigating the impeachments of several state governors, including those of Bayelsa and Plateau states, with just one third of the membership of their Houses of Assembly; the same man who ran Globacom owner, Mike Adenuga, out of town over an unproven allegation," AC said.
The party also said Ribadu, as Chairman of the EFCC, flouted court rulings with impunity, not minding the fact that he has now headed to the same court to seek justice after he was justifiably demoted.
"Ribadu, as a tool in the hand of a power monger and an anarchist, helped pave the way for the emergence of this administration by throwing roadblocks on the path of credible opponents of the PDP candidate and emboldening INEC to ruin the elections. Today, the administration does not want to have anything to do with him. He has fallen on his own petard," AC said.
Meanwhile the African Democratic Congress (ADC) Presidential candidate in the 2007 Presidential elections, Prof. Pat Utomi has called on the people involved to give account of their roles.
In a statement issued by his aide on media, Kila Odunaya, Utomi said: "It is pleasing that the presidency has issued a statement dissociating itself from what happened in Kuru not just because this is exactly what I called on them to do hours before their statement, but also because leadership has the obligation to set a moral tone for the country."
"It is therefore appropriate to commend the presidency for the courage to dissociate itself from what happened in NIPSS, Kuru which can leave this impression that we're sliding towards tyranny."
"I do hope that on many similar issues, the leadership would proactively take the moral high ground before public opinion hardens in the direction that's not helpful to our challenge to build a democracy that works for the majority of the people and is sensitive to the weak and the minority."
"However, I advise the federal government to now take a major step towards a renewal of our political and social order by ensuring that all involved and responsible for the shoddy outing must account for their indiscretion."
"Still going forward, I would then urge that actors in leadership recognise the need to put behind Nigeria and Nigerians, every inch of the past and put on the front burner, the great urgency of now, which is to create millions of jobs for Nigerians and to move this economy away from a rent-seeking arrangement." "We must move away from this rent-seeking arrangement in which the privilege of access to power creams off to the detriment of the citizenry, to an order that provides opportunities to all who are willing to apply themselves, actually creates wealth, and diversifies the base of national income.
"Our challenge must be to turn Nigeria away from 'paradise-deferred to paradise-reclaimed' and government must refocus its energy to the underserved young people of this country who are already in despair with a sense of hopelessness because not to liberate them now is to sacrifice a future of great potential'."
Also, the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has flayed the action of the government.
According to a statement, issued by its president Debo Adeniran, said the
administration had been moving from telling one lie to the other since its inauguration about 18 months ago.
"Apart from that of its ascendancy to office fraught with several irregularities, there is the lying about the health condition of President Yar'Adua undergoing a series of medical treatment for what could be a terminal ailment.
"There are several lies about the pogrom that are daily committed by the military Joint Task Force (JTF) in the Niger Delta. While the people said the JTF men were fighting and killing their civilian competitors in the business of illegal bunkering, the soldiers lie that it is the Niger-Delta trouble makers they were killing. There is the lie about the performance of 2008 budget government sources put it at more than 60% when it is actually performing less than 40% and several other lies to cover up its indiscretion, dereliction and insolence.
"We are not saying that the military and para-military forces in Nigeria should not observe their rules, regulations and procedures. Our argument is that such observance should be decorously done with all sense of honesty and responsibility.
"The humiliation meted out on Nuhu Ribadu in the presence of the world public at Kuru on Saturday is a collective shame to all of us all. If Ribadu had violated any law, there are civilised ways and procedures of making him pay or recompense for it. It is arrant nonsense, unacceptable and inexplicable barbarism that a student who successfully went through a course of study was not allowed to graduate.
"If Ribadu was not qualified to undergo the course why did the authorities coerced him to go through the rigours the course demanded? If he was found incompetent for the course why was he not advised to withdraw before the end of the course? Definitely, the authorities have something to hide in this case," read the statement.
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