Ibori: I’ll Produce Evidence against Ribadu
•We owe UK no assistance over Nigerians’ trial, says Aondoakaa
By Tokunbo Adedoja, 09.29.2009

The battle of wits between former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori, continued yesterday with the ex-governor threatening to produce “copious documentary evidence” on the allegations he made against the former anti-graft boss.
Also, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), may have recanted over the request for assistance from Britain on the trial of Ibori’s associates for alleged money laundering at a Southwark Crown Court in London.
Ibori had alleged during a media chat that former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Ribadu were behind his travails because he did not assist Ribadu to achieve his ambition of becoming the Inspector General of Police (IG) and due to his initial opposition to the second term bid of Obasanjo. He also hinged his travails on the lead role he played in the resource control campaign and his staunch support for President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
Ribadu had however faulted his claim, insisting that his interest in the Ibori case was based on his conviction that those who looted Nigeria’s funds must face the law. He also denied soliciting the former governor’s support to become the IG.
But Ibori in a statement said: “Ribadu should wait for the persecution by him and his London Metropolitan Police friends of my associates to break open in a full trial. Then I will enclose copious documentary evidence to substantiate every claim I have made. The opportunistic and brazen-faced Ribadu is nothing but a fraudulent ‘anti-corruption Czar’ who operated with instruments of blackmail.”
The statement further reads: “Mr Nuhu Ribadu engaged self-glorification in his press statement published on Sunday, 27th September 2009, taking an ignoble flight of fancy instead of addressing the issues I raised in my media chat of the preceding Friday, which, by the way, did not focus solely on Ribadu.
“Yes, I maintain that I never, repeat never, bribed or attempted to bribe Ribadu, who, always loose with the facts, tried to hoodwink the public by alleging that I was speaking after two years of being investigated. Yet, the bribery allegation I reacted to publicly, was the one he made in a witness statement in London as recently as August 26th 2009. I had to reply to that one publicly because, as Ribadu himself knows, that allegation will not be tested by any trial, as no charge whatsoever, whether related to that bribery allegation or not, has ever been levelled against me in any court of law in the entire United Kingdom. His allegation of two years ago, which I have not publicly reacted to, is being tested in court.
Ibori also insisted that the former EFCC boss plotted to unseat President Yar’Adua. He said: “Nuhu Ribadu must be a serial liar, to attempt to deny that he approached me to help unseat the present President. This is one of his numerous ongoing attempts to recruit both local and international friends to undermine President Yar’Adua’s administration. The persons he approached, including me, are still alive and they have given testimonies to security agencies. Ribadu even contacted a high-ranking member of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with complaints that a ‘sick Yar’Adua’ should not be allowed to remain in office, and also wanted a serving judge and member of the electoral panel to convince the team of INEC officials to concur with his evil plot that the ballot papers were not serially numbered - to damage Yar’Ardua’s defence. And he did this with some of his foreign friends who, to date, still wish President Yar’Adua dead.”
While accusing Ribadu of being a politician and not an anti-corruption fighter, Ibori alleged that he compromised himself, politicised his office, and teamed up with politicians to distribute funds to influence National Assembly members in the failed third-term project for President Obasanjo. He consequently threatened to provide copious documentary evidence to substantiate every claim he had made as the case in London progresses.
Ibori’s statement further reads: “He (Ribadu) should tell the world who paid for his hotel accommodation at 47 Park Street, Mayfair, London where he stayed on his way from San Francisco, USA. Additionally, Ribadu went about soliciting contributions from those he claimed to be investigating, towards a non-existent EFCC Football Club, for which he collected large sums of money which was never applied for the purpose they were collected. This may account for one of the reasons why he made away with many files when he was leaving office, and has refused to formally hand over to his successor in office to date. Has he declared how much he so collected?
“Worst of all, Ribadu denies that he lobbied me to be Inspector General of Police, (IGP). I never expected him to admit that fact. But if he did not approach me to be IGP, at what point did he inform me of his intention to seek appointment into a narcotics control arm of the United Nations Organisation? That day he appealed to me to keep it away from the public, but surprisingly, former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, told me, a few days after, that Mr. Ribadu was indeed seeking for the office and he heard this from the former World Bank boss, Paul Wolfenson. Of course, Ribadu also pursued Kalu everywhere in the name of investigation, while, all the time hiding evidence that Kalu had millions of dollars in foreign accounts before he became Abia State governor.
“Now, Ribadu is using colonial police in London to settle petty political scores in Nigeria, and he, a lawyer, denigrates and disrespects our judicial system by constant allegation of judicial incompetence. My advice to Ribadu is that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has been elected the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by the grace of Almighty God. Ribadu should respect the mandate Nigerians gave to Yar’Adua and stop hopping from one international capital of the world to another like a junketing gadabout, maligning the elected President of his country, to entertain the world and aggrandize himself.
“Ribadu also ranted he would use the London Metropolitan Police to send a certain Nigerian businessman to prison for alleged money laundering because he wrote and published a damaging piece about former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s vindictiveness. He actually tried to but only succeeded in wasting British taxpayer’s money as the businessman was discharged and acquitted on the orchestrated money laundering charges.
“Sooner Nigerians would know how Ribadu purchased by proxy the shares that he owns in his friends’ companies. Ribadu would then have to tell the world whether he bought those shares with proceeds from his salary. No wonder he has failed to declare his assets - which is tantamount to a crime.
“Finally, Ribadu, on our friendship, said: ‘Since I couldn’t see you when I visited Lagos recently why don’t you visit me in London to catch up with your other friends?’ I will accept his invitation to visit London as soon as he can prove to me that the matter in London is not driven by malice and vindictiveness. Let me remind Ribadu my friend, that by now I am too smart to be caught in a political game which himself and his collaborators in the London Metropolitan Police are playing. If he indeed believes that the trial of the women they have held hostage in London is not political, he should allow the process of the court to prove that, instead of pronouncing people guilty even before they appear in court as he usually did as EFCC chairman in Nigeria. He is not a staff of the London Metropolitan Police. He is not a member of the Crown Prosecution Service. Neither is he a member of the jury nor the Judge in the matter.
“If you, Nuhu Ribadu, a Nigerian in London, think you have the right to invite me to London to face some trumped up charges, I, a Nigerian with all the rights as a Nigerian, invite you to Nigeria your home country, where you are a pitiable fugitive from justice.”
Aondoakaa had reportedly endorsed a formal request by the anti-graft agency seeking the release of the 25 witnesses, saying he had no power to stop any Nigerian from exercising his constitutional right to testify anywhere
But yesterday, the minister told journalists in Abuja that Nigeria did not owe Britain or any other country legal assistance in the prosecution of Nigerians abroad because the Western world had also not been forthcoming on such request from Nigeria.
He also described his critics as illiterates.
Britain had through the Metropolitan Police asked Nigeria through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to release 25 officers with the commission as witnesses in the trial in London.
A Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) exists between the two countries to assist each other in the prosecution of trans-border criminal case.
The minister who spoke while fielding questions from newsmen after the inauguration of the National Committee on Torture said: "Are you saying Nigeria is answerable to other countries? Are you saying that whenever any request is made by any country I have no right to review it? Such request is an indictment of the country's security and judicial system".
He added: "When I requested for evidence from UK on Halliburton scandal, I was told to wait, the same thing from France and Switzerland, they are yet to comply".
However, in his statement penultimate Sunday, the minister had said “On the issue of 25 witnesses needed by the Met Police, nobody has brought that information to my notice and immediately I saw the publication in the papers today, I contacted the Secretary of the EFCC, Mr. Emmanuel Akomaye, who said they will be bringing whatever they have got from the Metropolitan Police on the next working day as regards the witnesses to testify in Ibori’s case.
“I have no request on my desk in relation to these witnesses. As soon as my office receives the request, it will be treated with dispatch and as the law requires.
“Let me make it clear on record that every Nigerian has a constitutional right of free movement and freedom of expression and therefore, the Office of the AGF will not breach the constitution by stopping anybody from testifying before any tribunal or court in Nigeria or outside, including the UK. That is the true fact.”



I ask again: How clean is Ribadu?

am not sure u read ur own article.

what credible allegation do you think ibori made above?