Sale of assets: Ribadu lied – EFCC
By FAITH HASSAN
Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has described a statement by its former Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, on the disposal of assets of convicted persons as insincere and fraudulent. While reacting to a statement by Ribadu through his lawyer, Charles Musa, the anti-graft agency, in its statement signed by its media spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said Musa lied when he said the present Chairman, Farida Waziri, supervised the sale of the assets while Ribadu only investigated and prosecuted the convicts.

“In a reaction to claims by Charles Musa, who is a lawyer to Ribadu, that the present EFCC Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, supervised the sale of the assets of former Bayelsa State governor, DSP Alamieyeseigha, and those of Emmanuel Nwude, the commission said the lawyer was being economical with the truth.

“It is obvious that Musa lied in his statement when he claimed that Ribadu only investigated and prosecuted Alamieyeseigha and Nwude’s matters while Waziri sold their assets.

“The question then is, was Waziri the EFCC chairman in 2006 when Alamieyeseigha and Nwude’s assets were sold in breach of EFCC Establishment Act and Extant Financial Regulations or was it Waziri that supervised how the proceeds were diverted then? Was Waziri the EFCC chairman in 2006 when all of Alamieyeseigha’s property in Port Harcourt and Abuja were sold to the same person under the guise of two different legal non- entities?” the anti-graft commission asked.

According to its statement, the EFCC said though it was not aware of how the report being disputed by Musa got to the media, it confirmed that some of the facts in the media reports were part of the findings of a committee which had in 2009 worked on the disposal of assets of convicted persons.

According to the statement, Waziri had on assumption of office in June 2008 invited Ribadu to come and provide information on case files and assets of convicted persons whose lawyers had written petitions alleging shady deals in the sale of their property since there was no proper handing over but Ribadu took the commission to court.

Subsequently, the statement said a committee was formed to ascertain the entirety of assets seized by the commission from inception to date, among others.
“The committee later turned in a report which raised mind bogging observations on the sale of Alamieyeseigha, Nwude and Tafa Balogun’s assets.

“Musa may still need to tell Nigerians and, indeed, the world why his statement failed to explain the sale of Tafa Balogun’s property. Could it be because there was no reason to attribute that to Waziri or because he was scared of mentioning that out of nine companies that bought the property, six of them are fake companies?
“He needs another statement to explain the individuals behind these ghost companies and why the bulk of the houses were sold to them at ridiculously cheap prices. Or could it also be because he was scared of letting the public know that the property were sold at rates below the value of the land they were built on because the same person was the valuer, seller and cashier?
“If Musa has started shifting blame at this point, what will he do if he sees the entire report of the committee? We like to remind Musa that these are atrocities that are better defended before a competent court of law rather than an attempt to blackmail in the media,” EFCC said.

Soldier come, Soldier go, Barracks dey

And the saga continues