Daily Independent (Lagos)
Olusola Balogun , Sukuji Bakoji (kaduna)
4 December 2008
Lagos — Nuhu Ribadu did not show up at the Force Disciplinary Committee (FDC) headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Ogbonna Onovo, which sat in Kaduna on Thursday.
Relatives and associates said Ribadu has been unreachable in the past 48 hours, fuelling speculation that the former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Chairman may have fled the country.
He may have gone on exile sequel to his allegation that his life is being threatened in Nigeria, where he is a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), after his demotion from the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) on August 4.
Up to 160 disciplinary cases were listed for hearing by the FDC but it handled about 50, as other officers also failed to turn up.
The FDC winds up today, but it was learnt that it may give Ribadu another opportunity to answer the charges against him before forwarding its report to the Police Service Commission (PSC) for further action.
Ribadu has been at loggerheads with the police authorities and the EFCC in the past few weeks.
The police asked him to appear before the FDC to explain why he failed to answer three queries issued to him by his superiors, including Inspector General (IG), Mike Okiro.
The EFCC wants him to clarify issues pertaining to former Governors whose cases were handled when he was the Chairman.
But Ribadu has chosen to use the courts to protect himself, in contravention of the rules that forbid serving officers from suing the police authorities.
He has asked the ECOWAS Court in Abuja to stop Okiro from arraigning him before the FDC, and to nullify his invitation to the Committee because Okiro does not have the powers to invite him there.
The suit, which Ribadu instituted against Nigeria, also requested the court to nullify all the steps taken by the police to make him appear before the FDC.
His counsel, Charles Muse, asked the court to declare that by virtue of Section 153 (Subsection 1and 2) of the Constitution, only the PSC can discipline him.
He said the IG is not constitutionally empowered to set up a Disciplinary Committee to try him or dismiss him from the police.
He urged the court to protect his fundamental human rights as contained in Articles 7and 12 of the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights.
Although no date has been fixed for the hearing, it was learnt that the federal Attorney General and Justice Minister, Mike Aondoakaa, was served with the court papers at 3.30 p.m. on Thursday.
A source close to Ribadu said he may have sneaked out to a neighbouring country on his way to Europe.
He had initially warded off pressures from relatives and friends to go on exile in the face of threats to his life, opting to stay in Nigeria because he has not committed any crime.
However, Ribadu alleged that assailants recently trailed him on Jos Road in Abuja, and shot at his vehicle, damaging the windscreen.
That was after he was prevented from graduating from the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru on November 22.
Former Delta State Governor, James Ibori, dissociated himself from the travails of Ribadu on Thursday.
A statement issued by Ibori's media aide, Tony Eluemunor, said in as much as Ibori would not be drawn into the game Ribadu is playing with the police authorities he condemns the way Ibori's case with the EFCC in Kaduna is being dragged into the public domain through unguarded comments.
Eluemunor criticised how veiled references to Ibori have been made "especially by a Ribadu-sponsored Human Rights Watch report" alluding to a bribery of $15 million that Ribadu allegedly rejected.
"For the avoidance of any doubt this is a charge that Ibori has vehemently denied in court and the newspapers lacked the decency of including that in their reports.
"Ribadu himself knows that this allegation is a lie, and instead of Ribadu and his London metropolitan police allies - who are witnesses in the case - to wait for their day in court, they are busy abusing court processes by using a case in court for public relations purposes to lionise Ribadu.
"He has reportedly even told some of his friends that he regrets ever arresting Ibori, but that he did that to use him as a human shield - as he is doing now, blaming anything that happens to him on Ibori or using Ibori to blackmail President Umaru Yar'Adua and other government officials.
"We advise Ribadu to respect the courts of the land where relevant exhibits and evidence are admissible - instead of misleading the public through sponsored NGO (non-governmental organisation) and media reports.
"Ribadu seemingly lost control when his ambition of becoming IGP (Inspector General of Police) could not be realised.
"Having begged, cajoled and blackmailed certain persons, right from former President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration for the IGP appointment, he then began to take his revenge on Ibori whom he accused of not advancing the Ribadu-for-IGP project hard enough and to blackmail Yar'Adua for not indulging his fantasy."
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my comment is that okiro does not supose to be were he´s now in polices thanks