President Forced Me Into Exile, Says Ribadu
From Saxone Akhaine, Kaduna
For the first time, the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday, admitted that the government of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, forced him into exile after several excruciating moments he went through while at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) and the attitude of the Nigeria Police Force, which he meritoriously served while in office.
In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa Service in London, monitored in Kaduna, Ribadu said: "Whatever that happened, that is how God wants it, but it is something that has to do with the government. The way we worked in the past, this government doesn't want it. They said I should go to school. I was in school, they followed me, and they had sacked me. Not done with me, on the graduation day I was not allowed to received certificate; I was forced out with my children and family. The President knows and he has sent me out of the country on exile."
Besides, on whether he was making a blanket allegation, Ribadu stressed: "Who would have done this work if not him? Is this even something that we have to argue? Everybody knows that it was the government. God knows what happened and God will judge us."
Responding to a question with regard to the President's interview with The Guardian on his failure to resign from the commission, Malam Ribadu, who is currently studying at the Oxford University in the United Kingdom, pointed out that "I don't even understand what was credited to him," adding: "He is the President. Did he call me and say I should leave the work, and I did not? What is there if not suffering and making enemies and foes? God knows I did this work with nothing and without greed."
Ribadu also dismissed the allegation that he took documents from the commission, insisting, "It is not true. I, with the support of other committed people, built the EFCC to where we left it."
On whether the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo used him and later dumped him, Malam Nuhu Ribadu said: "People should know there was differences in our work. This Obasanjo I didn't even know him; it was work that joined us and he gave me freedom and have never said 'Nuhu come and do this'.
"But you cannot stop people with their different impressions. I investigated him and found nothing indicting against him but I got his daughter.
"Today I am suffering here. This is because I don't want to stay abroad; it is suffering here; only recently I started earning salary after one year. I got a job with the Centre for Global Development; I thank God the demand for my service is increasing in the world. Hardly two or three days (pass) without my attention being needed across the world. I thank God for this," Ribadu said.
