…Says: ‘Me?, beg Odili? Never!’
From ERIC OSAGIE, Abuja
Former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has opened up on issues raised by the former governor of Rivers State, Dr. Peter Odili, on the power play surrounding how he was forced out of the 2007 presidential race. In his new book, Conscience and History: My Story, Odili had alleged a gang-up by Ribadu; former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Nasiru el-Rufai and a handful of influential governors, deploying phoney corruption charges by Ribadu’s EFCC to frustrate him out of the presidential and vice-presidential contests.
Some newspapers had also alleged that Ribadu had since apologised privately to Odili for wrongly and maliciously persecuting him. However, speaking exclusively with Daily Sun in Abuja, Ribadu dismissed the former governor’s claims of receiving an apology from him.
“Me?, beg Odili? Never!” Ribadu thundered. “Why should I beg him? For what? I have never begged anybody for doing my job. I have never apologised to anybody. I can never and will never beg anybody, because I did my job honestly and with the fear of God. So, why should I beg him?” On the 2007 presidential battle and how Odili was schemed out as contained in his book, the former anti-graft agency boss said at the appropriate time, he would fully tell his own story. But he gave a glimpse into what could have happened. “What was the difference between Obasanjo and Odili at that time?
They were one and the same. If we stopped Odili, it means we were not in support of Obasanjo’s plot. It was not about Odili, but standing against what was perceived to be wrong; standing against a plot we found to be wrong. Odili was not the main issue. It was about our country and deciding to do the right thing.” Pressed further to speak up, Ribadu said: “You must realise that the work we did at the EFCC was one of the most daunting tasks since independence, attempting to fight corruption. We were up against powerful forces.
We were dealing with the high and mighty; the low and the poor. You don’t expect them not to fight back. If I am to react to everything by everybody, about what I did or failed to do at EFCC, how many people will I be able to react to?
That’s why I have chosen to keep quiet. So, my response to anybody writing books either for personal reasons or in pursuit of future ambition, is simple: anybody is free to create his own truth, create his own history, after all, this is what freedom of speech and democracy is about. But the truth will always remain constant.
Nobody can change the truth. My conscience tells me I gave the job my best shot. We all are accountable to God at the end of the day.” What is his relationship with his former boss, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, the man whose bidding he was alleged to have ‘rabidly’ pursued?
And why was he not at his Abeokuta residence when his house got burnt, and for his birthday party? Ribadu revealed that he had neither seen nor spoken to the former leader for nearly four years now.
“The truth is, we have not met or spoken since 2009. All through my travails under Yar’Adua, we didn’t speak. I didn’t call him, and he never spoke with me. During my presidential campaigns and all that, we haven’t been in contact. And that’s the truth.”
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