Mr. Ribadu says it was saddening that after all the damage
she inflicted on the operations and credibility of the EFCC, Mrs Waziri,
could turn round to deride the commission.
A former
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Nuhu
Ribadu, has described his successor, Farida Waziri, as a liar in
response to Mrs Waziri’s claim that Mr. Ribadu served under her.
Mr
Ribadu, on Thursday, stepped into a controversy generated by a series
of interviews conducted by the media unit of the EFCC with past and
present government leaders and officials.
In one of the
interviews, published in the commission’s magazine, Zero Tolerance,
former President Olusegun Obasanjo questioned Mrs. Waziri’s
qualification as head of the EFCC, and said her tenure severely reversed
Nigeria’s gains in anti-corruption war under Mr. Ribadu.
The
comments drew a fierce response from Mrs. Waziri who accused the former
president of manipulating the EFCC with Mr. Ribadu as his tool, to seek a
third term in office.
She defended her competence for the job by
citing a string of academic and professional qualifications, amongst
which she claimed to have supervised Mr. Ribadu and the current EFCC
chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, when they all served in the Nigeria Police.
“To
further expose the height of mischief in the allegations,” she said of
Mr. Obasanjo’s comments, “the past and present chairmen of the EFCC have
both worked under me, yet someone can open his mouth to say I am not
qualified to head the same agency.”
Mr. Ribadu denied those
claims on Thursday, and labelled Mrs Waziri a “merchant of falsehood”
who recycles “crooked statements to the point of cliché, in spite of
attempts at clarifications.”
He said it was inappropriate for Mrs Waziri to claim he worked under her.
“This
is a naked lie that she keeps flaunting to seek undue relevance and
validate her own appointment. At no time in my career did I work under
the same section or unit as her. In fact, contrary to Waziri’s claim
that she “trained” me, it was I that actually lectured her and others,
on fraud investigation and prosecution, when she was newly posted as
Head of Special Fraud Unit, even though she was my senior in rank,” the
former EFCC boss said in statement he personally signed.
“I was
then the Head of Prosecution at the Tribunals under the leadership of Mr
Sunday Ehindero, then CP Legal,” Mr. Ribadu said.
Mr. Ribadu also disputed another claim about being used to push Mr. Obasanjo’s third term.
He said it was evident that Mrs Waziri, who was nowhere near EFCC at the time, was ignorant of what transpired.
Mr.
Ribadu said it was saddening that after all the damage inflicted on the
operations and credibility of the EFCC by Mrs Waziri, she turned back
to abuse the young men and women who had put in all their energy in
cleaning up the country especially during that critical time, by
dismissing their work and sacrifice.
“EFCC was not about Nuhu
Ribadu. Rubbishing its work, therefore, is like insulting all the
thousands of its operatives across the country who put their lives on
the line to make Nigeria a better country. If Mrs Waziri has a personal
score to settle with anybody, she should direct her attack at the person
but not the organisation,” Mr. Ribad
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