Disappointed by the conduct of his party’s hierarchy during the just-concluded presidential poll, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has concluded plans to dump the party.

National Mirror reliably learnt that Ribadu, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), felt used and disappointed by the attitude of some ACN leaders who traded him off in the build-up to the presidential election. But his departure from the party might not be an“He has no option than to leave the party. It wasn’t mere tales that he was sold out by the party leadership a few days to the election. We have reliable information on how a certain leader of the party met serving governors elected on the platform of the ACN and directed them to mobilise support for another party’s presidential candidate.

“This is a sad development for a party which claims to be a progressive. So, there is no need hob-nobbing with people who care less about your future. Ultimately, he is leaving ACN, but the destination cannot be disclosed yet,” a top member of the Ribadu Campaign Organisation told our correspondent yesterday. The source added that Ribadu’s stay in the ACN had been full of pains. According to the source, “He had wanted to leave the party just before the election because they were making things difficult for him. The party disagreed with him on virtually all issues. Look at the choice of running mate, how it dragged so long. So, ACN has not been fair to him. The only thing they did not do to him was that they didn’t physically hurt him.

That is bad. “It was clear that without an alliance, ACN could not win the presidential election, so he made up his mind to withdraw from the race so that the alliance could work. He was prepared to make the sacrifice. But they frustrated every move until they sold out.” Another source told our reporter that many of the ACN leaders had not spoken to Ribadu after his dismal showing at the presidential election on April 16. A member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party confirmed this to National Mirror, but attributed this to an ‘oversight.’ Ribadu came a distant third with 2,079,151 votes, representing 5.41% of the votes cast in the presidential election, losing all the states controlled by the ACN, except Osun, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan.

Former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was alleged to have brokered a deal with the PDP which affected the chances of Ribadu in the election and gave him away. “The reason why he won Osun was because Governor Rauf Aregbesola did not go with them when they negotiated to trade off. He knew Tinubu very well. Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole, for example, didn’t like Ribadu right from the word go. So, it was expected that he would not give any consideration to Ribadu,” a member of the Ribadu Campaign Organisation said. Another confidant of Ribadu confirmed to National Mirror that the retired Assistant Inspector- General of Police (AIG) had reviewed his political journey in the ACN and had come to a conclusion to part ways with the party.

“Ideologically, Ribadu and some of the ACN leaders are not on the same page. But political exigency brought them together. This young man has no intention of running for public office until he was persuaded to do so by some ACN stalwarts. But at the end of the day, the political merchant traded him off. “He was used primarily to launder the image of some party godfathers,” he said. National Mirror also learnt that a group of northern politicians were already wooing Ribadu to defect to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and possibly contest on the party’s platform in 2015.

Already, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the CPC presidential candidate, had said he would not contest the 2015 presidency, saying 2011 election was his last. The northern group are narrowing their choice for 2015 presidency to Ribadu, Governor Ibrahim Shekarau and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, a former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister. Ribadu is said to be an in-law to Buhari. On the option left for him, one of coordinators said: “We are looking at different options. We are going to meet to do a post-mortem on the presidential election looking at where we went wrong and what is next.

“Sincerely, ACN is not an option. Some of us cannot go through that route again. So, a lot of political parties will come together. That does not mean that Ribadu will be the rallying point. Already, ACN has followed the PDP. “At the end of the day, there will be new name for the parties coming together where it won’t be a sectional party. CPC will be part of the alliance. Buhari is not contesting again. He will just be a father figure.” When contacted on the development, the National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, said he was unaware of such move by Ribadu.

“I don’t think that will happen,” he said. Muhammed said nobody betrayed Ribadu in the presidential election but that the poll was fought on religious and ethnic grounds. But when asked if he has spoken to Ribadu since Saturday, Muhammed said he had not. To further underscore the frosty relationship between Ribadu and the ACN, neither him nor any of the party leaders has commented on how he lost woefully at the presidential elections. In the meantime, Ribadu is on his way out of the country. A source told National Mirror that the Adamawa-born politician would travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah this weekend, from where he would proceed on a long vacation in the United States.

Can someone spill the beans already!

Why cant Ribadu come out and reveal what went down?

You should have known that ACN was never ready for the presidency, if you don't leave now, you won't be relevant in the days to come.

By 2015, ACN's likely to come up with other names (Fashola and co in the picture).

I dey laff O!

Law prince:

Disappointed by the conduct of his party’s hierarchy during the just-concluded presidential poll, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), has concluded plans to dump the party.

National Mirror reliably learnt that Ribadu, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), felt used and disappointed by the attitude of some ACN leaders who traded him off in the build-up to the presidential election. But his departure from the party might not be an“He has no option than to leave the party. It wasn’t mere tales that he was sold out by the party leadership a few days to the election. We have reliable information on how a certain leader of the party met serving governors elected on the platform of the ACN and directed them to mobilise support for another party’s presidential candidate.

“This is a sad development for a party which claims to be a progressive. So, there is no need hob-nobbing with people who care less about your future. Ultimately, he is leaving ACN, but the destination cannot be disclosed yet,” a top member of the Ribadu Campaign Organisation told our correspondent yesterday. The source added that Ribadu’s stay in the ACN had been full of pains. According to the source, “He had wanted to leave the party just before the election because they were making things difficult for him. The party disagreed with him on virtually all issues. Look at the choice of running mate, how it dragged so long. So, ACN has not been fair to him. The only thing they did not do to him was that they didn’t physically hurt him.

That is bad. “It was clear that without an alliance, ACN could not win the presidential election, so he made up his mind to withdraw from the race so that the alliance could work. He was prepared to make the sacrifice. But they frustrated every move until they sold out.” Another source told our reporter that many of the ACN leaders had not spoken to Ribadu after his dismal showing at the presidential election on April 16. A member of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party confirmed this to National Mirror, but attributed this to an ‘oversight.’ Ribadu came a distant third with 2,079,151 votes, representing 5.41% of the votes cast in the presidential election, losing all the states controlled by the ACN, except Osun, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan.

Former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was alleged to have brokered a deal with the PDP which affected the chances of Ribadu in the election and gave him away. “The reason why he won Osun was because Governor Rauf Aregbesola did not go with them when they negotiated to trade off. He knew Tinubu very well. Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole, for example, didn’t like Ribadu right from the word go. So, it was expected that he would not give any consideration to Ribadu,” a member of the Ribadu Campaign Organisation said. Another confidant of Ribadu confirmed to National Mirror that the retired Assistant Inspector- General of Police (AIG) had reviewed his political journey in the ACN and had come to a conclusion to part ways with the party.

“Ideologically, Ribadu and some of the ACN leaders are not on the same page. But political exigency brought them together. This young man has no intention of running for public office until he was persuaded to do so by some ACN stalwarts. But at the end of the day, the political merchant traded him off. “He was used primarily to launder the image of some party godfathers,” he said. National Mirror also learnt that a group of northern politicians were already wooing Ribadu to defect to the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and possibly contest on the party’s platform in 2015.

Already, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the CPC presidential candidate, had said he would not contest the 2015 presidency, saying 2011 election was his last. The northern group are narrowing their choice for 2015 presidency to Ribadu, Governor Ibrahim Shekarau and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, a former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister. Ribadu is said to be an in-law to Buhari. On the option left for him, one of coordinators said: “We are looking at different options. We are going to meet to do a post-mortem on the presidential election looking at where we went wrong and what is next.

“Sincerely, ACN is not an option. Some of us cannot go through that route again. So, a lot of political parties will come together. That does not mean that Ribadu will be the rallying point. Already, ACN has followed the PDP. “At the end of the day, there will be new name for the parties coming together where it won’t be a sectional party. CPC will be part of the alliance. Buhari is not contesting again. He will just be a father figure.” When contacted on the development, the National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Lai Muhammed, said he was unaware of such move by Ribadu.

“I don’t think that will happen,” he said. Muhammed said nobody betrayed Ribadu in the presidential election but that the poll was fought on religious and ethnic grounds. But when asked if he has spoken to Ribadu since Saturday, Muhammed said he had not. To further underscore the frosty relationship between Ribadu and the ACN, neither him nor any of the party leaders has commented on how he lost woefully at the presidential elections. In the meantime, Ribadu is on his way out of the country. A source told National Mirror that the Adamawa-born politician would travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah this weekend, from where he would proceed on a long vacation in the United States.

SO IM JUST DEY KNOW NOW? SHIOOR

any way, na Jimoh Ibrahim of PDP get national mirror so,

After the NASS election,Acn discovered that Ribadu was not sellable in the the North and the stubborn Buhari won't step down for him either,So there was never any way Ribadu would have won the election with only SW votes.

Why is Ribadu such a drama queen?

Honest to God, I dont know why the dude was even in the presidential race.
Osun state tried sha.

If this news is true. . . . .hmmmm. Shame shame.

Ribadu must leave ACN in order to have a political future and relevance. CPC will be the ideal party cos tinubus personal interest will always be a stumbling block to ribadus aspiration. He was used as a tool to launder tinubu/ACN image and further negotiation at the presidential election.

Do not defect to that blood thirsty CPCoven. You may team up with ANPP or even FRESH but please not that one.

CPC will hardly gain any acceptance in the south because of the current events. He may be on his way to PDP! The signs have always been there.

[b]Ribadu should have followed his conviction. He had plans for 2015, but he got drafted into the 2011 elections by Baronic fiat which he fell for going by the rampaging successful court rulings in favour of ACN. His thinking then this party has come of age as the official de-facto opposition and was in pole position to give the PDP a run for her money. True going by proceedings between October and November 2010 one could not think otherwise , having high  hopes by people like Ribadu would not be out of place.

Ribadu did not help matters however, how can a Presidential candidate lose his own ward, I choose to believe that he had not done the ground work necessary in preparation for elections of this magnitude I just hope he is not damaged goods and a liability to both self, and any future party he plans to join. But inherenting Buhari's political machinery,  his marauding and vociferous followers and going by his own(Ribadu's) antecedent of being a worthy and exemplary anti-corruption czar might help Buhari's teeming supporters to switch loyalty to this young man who is albeit a grand-standing photocopy of the sage " Sai Buhari",   his hiccups at the ACN might be seen and viewed as a deliberate Yoruba conspiracy to discredit a rising Northern star in preparation for their own son come 2015.  

Messer's Fashola would be out of office by 2015 and if put forward as a presidential candidate with his huge admirers all over Southern Nigeria and the Middlebelt, he would be an electoral asset to any would be party,  we may yet have another North/ South divide in the country if Fashola is pitched against Ribadu in 2015.

On the brighter side like the rumour mills have been saying for sometime now, that Fashola might ditch ACN for Labor or even CPC, if it were the latter, the combination of Ribadu/ Fashola would be a Political Tsunami  that would overwhelm the polity and sweep any other political force away.

I doubt if  this would come to frution thus, why would a man of Fashola's enigma stoop low and run as a VP to Ribadu, a man that has never held any political position short of EFCC Chairman, that would be the bone of contention.  I don't see CPC fielding any Southerner for now, perhaps Bakare may get a second shot and chance of being Ribadu's VP but the recent spat between these two gentlemen might have put paid to that idea.  

I still see it as feasible going by the salient fact that both Ribadu and Bakare are political minnows who has little or no electoral values in their own locality and in their own capacity,  inherenting someone like Buhari's  political assets would be too luring for politically naive Bakare not to compromise and reaching an agreement accepting what Ribadu has to offer him that is assuming Ribadu inherets Buhari's political machinery.

Equally I don't think Bakare would want go back to that role of a howling pastor in the backwater of Sango Otta who nobody would take any serious after his poor performance in the elections of 2011 especially in the SW and the resulting riots that ensued, he has however tasted semblance of power and would be hooked on it like a cocaine addict who is hooked on his drugs.
[/b]

There wont be so much difference between what PDP is now and what ACN would become if they gain more grounds in the nearest future.

I have been suspecting his being ACN since, he has always been PDP ''boy'' PDP made him EFCC chairman, he ran away when he had problem with FG, it was GEJ that allowed him him to the country also withdrawn all court cases around him. He may have been planted in ACN as spoiler, which ACN has done very well by not mobilizing for Presi election as they normally do for all elections.

Coming from a Jimoh Ibrahim Newspaper? willnever believe this though it is Possible, Lemme see it in punch or Nation first!1

@odunnu,

This is ANPP's last stand as a national party.

They will lose the governorship elections in Kano and maybe one other NE state and the governor of any remaining ANPP state(s) will defect to CPC or PDP.

FRESH? That one na Okotie party o! I don't see them lasting another six years and it would take that long only if Okotie decides to show face in 2015. Remember that they had a candidate for Lagos governor in 2007? This time, I don't think they contested for any office apart from president.

Where are my fellow "progressives". If this news is true then I think I have been vinidcated. I have said it from the onset that Ribadus adventure was an expensive gamble, I admired this guy before but could not understand his alliance with Tinubu, now he has been taught the biggest lesson in politics.

I have predicted that his future relevance in poliitics lies in dissociating himself from Tinubu and perhaps joining his friend El rufai in CPC where they would both slug it out on who would contest the 2015 presidency. If you ask me though, I would prefer SLS as presidential candidate of CPC in 2015.

Ribadu has gained nothing from this adventure except ridicule and exposure of his political naivity, dent on his anti corruption image and worse still exposed as a political paperweight who needs to build a political base, Ribadu could not win his ward which I screamed out before the elections that he could not win his ward and should have stepped down much earlier. Looking back I believe Attahiru Bafarawa would have performed better in the elections when compared with Ribadus performance.

Ribadu was only a pawn in a game of the political chess masters.
The guy must be a daft if he was expecting anything different from what he got.

Ribadu should have gone home to conest for the House of Rep or even the guber of his state. Sometimes I wonder who advices this people.