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Nigeria - Jonathan Goodluck’s Family, Sahara Reporters,
Ribadu Or Adewuyi: Who Lied Against Who
19 June 2010 By Adebiyi Jelili Abudugana
While appraising comments on one of my articles on the
ignominious act of public treasury pilfering, and
money laundering by the consort of the Nigeria
president, Mrs. Dame Patience Goodluck, I stumbled
across an impious rejoinder.
In this Machiavellian rejoinder filled with statements
that run riot to truth, Mr. Ayo wrote:
Our attention has been drawn to a malicious on-line
news report on Sahara Reporters about the recent trip
of Her Excellency…The report also made reference to
the EFCC case of which Mrs. Jonathan has since been
absolved. This is a case on which investigation had
been concluded and Mrs. Jonathan was not found
culpable, but the distracters continue to make a
mountain out of a mole hill.
Although Ayo was making a specific reply to a Sahara
Reporters’ article on Mrs. Jonathan’s gold buying trip
to Dubai, the major focus was on Mr. President’s wife
infamous act of public robbery and money stashing in
foreign banks. Since I have been persistently making
an issue out of this high profile case of
administrative misdemeanor, I felt the necessity of
exposing the rejoinder as a tissue of lies.
Ayo, the salaried image rescuer of the Nigeria’s first
family submitted:
If she had been found culpable, we are certain that
Nuhu Ribadu would have charged her to court because
she has no immunity. We want to state categorically
that Mrs. Jonathan has no link with the seized N104
million and has no knowledge of any $13.5 million
Dollars. In fact, there was never an incident of $13.5
million Dollars…we challenge Sahara Reporters to
contact Mr. Nuhu Ribadu or Mrs Farida Waziri to get
the facts of the matter.
May I call reader’s attention to the fact that,
on September 11, 2006, Mr. Osita Nwajah, the EFCC
spokesman made a public declaration that a whopping
sum of $13.5 million Dollars (US) was seized from
Mrs. Patience Jonathan, the wife of then Governor of
Bayelsa State, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan. Until now,
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu has neither made any known public
verbal or oral denial of this declaration nor is the
EFCC known to have issued any statement of rebuttal.
For the Nigeria’s first family to have claimed that
there was never an incident
of $13.5 million Dollars shows a crooked attempt on
their part. Such statement was neither made before
Jonathan became President nor before Mallam Nuhu
Ribadu negotiated his freedom with the latter. In
other words, it was after Jonathan became the
President of Nigeria and Ribadu struck a deal with
Jonathan on his freedom that the Nigeria’s first
family could be courageous to make any bold public
declarative statement that they never stole $13.5
million Dollars from the public treasury. Why this
period and never before? Is this not suggestive of a
possible bargain between Ribadu and Jonathan’s family,
such which shortchanged facts of history and which
required rob my back, I rob your back reciprocating
compromise?
Before proceeding further, a trenchant look may be
necessary at the earlier quoted part of the scandalous
rejoinder as its syntax, organization and sequencing
shows that Nuhu Ribadu’s name was used to authenticate
the bogus claim which the rejoinder advanced. To this
extent, note be taken of the statement’s take off
point which reads, “If she had been found culpable, we
are certain that Nuhu Ribadu would have charged her to
court because she has no immunity.”
Also, we may further need to break this statement into
two parts vis: “If she had been found culpable,” “we
are certain that Nuhu Ribadu would have charged her to
court because she has no immunity.” In the second
part, Nuhu Ribadu’s name featured as that
down-to-earth anti-corruption crusader who would never
hesitate to prosecute any known case of corruption,
let alone when it involves somebody without immunity.
Was it not on the strength of this Ribadu’s hard
earned dreaded image that sometimes in 2006, he, Nuhu
Ribadu challenged in the hollow chambers, members of
the senate that, “…tell me now, the name of anybody
who has collected the 50 million naira from anybody
and you will see what I will do about it.” What
followed was total silence as the Senators knew that
daring Nuhu Ribadu was an invitation to jail.
Therefore, as claimed in the rejoinder, that Nuhu
Ribadu did not charge Mr. President’s wife for
steeling, and money laundering and her husband as an
accomplice, meant Jonathan and Patience had not be
found culpable of committing any act of public
treasury robbery. In other words, if there had been an
established case of fraud committed by Patience
Goodluck, Ribadu would have not only exposed and
prosecuted the case, but also, make sure that as it
was with Tafa Balogun, Patience is sent to jail. As
claimed since Madam Patience was not prosecuted by
Nuhu Ribadu, then, it means the first family had no
link with the seized N104 million; also, that the
stolen $13.5 million Dollars was just a creation of
imagination. Little wonder, Ayo wrote:
“We want to state categorically that Mrs. Jonathan has
no link with the seized N104 million and has no
knowledge of any $13.5 million Dollars. In fact, there
was never an incident of $13.5 million Dollars…we
challenge Sahara Reporters to contact Mr. Nuhu Ribadu
or Mrs Farida Waziri to get the facts of the matter.
That a challenge was thrown to any doubting Thomases
to contact Mr. Nuhu Ribadu or his successor, further
shows this claim does carry with it, a measure of
authority that the persons whose names were mentioned
could refute nor could it be found, any official
document that incriminates the person of Mr.
President’s wife. Since the claim was also made, Nuhu
Ribadu had not issued a rebuttal but only known to
have been making statements that if offered to serve
by Jonathan, he would graciously embrace the
opportunity. His silence confirms the complicity of
his name as a partner in crime who might have
negotiated his freedom and
acquittance from corrupt charges based on robs
my back, I rob your back compromise approach.
Not daunted by the new look of things; one may need to
remind Ribadu, Ayo and the Nigeria’s first family of a
plenary section of the Senate which held on September
27, 2006. On this historic day, Nuhu Ribadu who was
then in charge of EFCC took to the stage in the hollow
chamber to brief the Senate on the report of its
Commission on anti-corruption activities.
It was on this day that Ribadu dared the Senators to
name anybody who collected 50 million naira from
anybody during the Third Term saga, claimed that the
biggest fraudster ever in the world was a Nigerian and
dropped the following shattering bombshell which shall
be quoted verbatim. He, Nuhu Ribadu declared:
Abia is number one (of corrupt state) not because it
is number one alphabetically, but because we have one
of the biggest established cases of stealing, money
laundering, diversion of fund against Governor Kalu.
The governor used his mother, daughter, wife and
brother to divert N35billion to build his business
empire including Slok Airlines, Slok Pharmaceuticals
and newspaper house…Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu
corruption is of international dimension.There is s
also a petition against the Governor of Bayelsa’s
wife. She was involved in laundering the sum of one
hundred and four million into foreign account. She is
also being investigated.
Rattled by this revelation all the indicted governors
issued strong statements which tagged Ridadu’s
outburst as a witch-hunting agenda scripted by
Obasanjo and others, to bushwhack their political
adversaries. Among those who dispatched rejoinders was
Keneth Ekpelu, the then spokesperson to Madam Jonathan
Goodluck. He wrote;
The first lady wishes to restate her unreserved
respect for the institution of the EFCC and wishes
Bayelsans and Nigerians at large to continue to
support the organization in its effort to attain a
corruption-free Nigeria, “She, however wishes to point
out the need to separate the EFCC’s honest quest for
justice from the posturing of her husband’s opponents
who strangely perceive her as the soft spot in his
political armour and won’t stop hammering away at her
until their decisions to oust him from office are met
Dennis Sami, the then spokesperson for Governor
Jonathan Goodluck also registered his reaction by
saying the allegations were a “charade,” the target of
which was the Governor.
From the foregoing analysis, it is obvious that Mrs.
Jonathan’s claim,
“We want to state categorically that Mrs. Jonathan has
no link with the seized N104 million and has no
knowledge of any $13.5 million Dollars,” is a
scandalous attempt to distort history and burry a well
documented case of treasury robbery. That Ribadu is
yet to refute this spurious claim or sue the first
family for using his name for authenticating false as
truth, means, it was done with his express permission.
Was it not the Ribadu-led EFCC which stated that,
“We had reason to believe the seized funds (N104
million)
belonged to the public. In a sworn statement, Mrs.
Nwosu implicated Patience Jonathan.”
Was it not the same Ribadu-led EFCC that went to court
to prosecute this case in a
suit number FHC/ABJ/M/340/06 filed on August 21, 2007
at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
It is on record that while filing this case, EFCC
named Mrs. Patience Jonathan, wife of Goodluck
Jonathan, as an accomplice in the N104million-money
laundering case involving Mrs. Nancy Ebere Nwosu. The
said money as reveled Ribadu-led EFCC was on the order
of Mrs Patience Goodluck, laundered into a First Bank
of Nigeria account number 3292010060711 held in the
name of Nansolyvan Public Relations Limited by one
Hanner Offor. Accordingly, in the Commission’s
affidavit used in supporting the suit’s originating
summons, Ofem Uket, the EFCC prosecuting officer
declared:
Our investigations revealed that Mrs. Patience
Jonathan, wife of the Governor of Bayelsa State, was
the person who instructed one Hanner Offor to launder
the said sum of N104, 000, 000 into the account of
Nansolyvan Public Relations Limited with First Bank of
Nigeria Plc (FBN), Niger House, Marina, Lagos.
In the face of this documented evidence, which I
challenge Ayo Adewuyi, the Nigeria’s first family and
Ribadu to disprove, it has been exposed the true face
who the liars are. The liar is neither me nor Sahara
Reporters as claimed Ayo and cohorts, rather, those
who conspired to issue Jonathan’s family, a clean bill
of health.
Concrete effort must now be made to challenge this
case before a competent court in the land, therefore,
my suggestion that signatures be mobilized to force
the EFCC to commence the trial of these cases.
However, since the EFCC is compromised, I am afraid,
justice that is already denied will be legitimized.
Therefore, I challenge human right groups, labour
unions, Save Nigeria Group and other Non-Governmental
bodies to take up this case by not only staging a
national demonstration but also, fashioning out the
modalities through which justice will be seen done to
the case.
On the final note, let Ribadu be aware that just like
excellence expires with time, so is one’s hard built
reputation gets soiled when one takes to dishonourable
Associates. The desperation of Ribadu to serve his
fatherland under questionable personalities whom he
made us known are treasury looters speaks volume about
his least known side. It may be true that all the
allegations leveled against Ribadu by the leadership
of late Presider, Umar Yar’Adua are founded, after
all, he chose, in preference to the legal means, the
Aso Rock facilitated freedom and
acquittance. With your claim that you cannot
wait to be appointed to serve under Jonathan Goodluck,
you have demonstrated your real identity, however, it
may not be too late for you to retrace your steps,
retract your commitment to a government whose hands
are soiled in a criminal case that is well known by
you and the whole world.
The writer, Mr. Adebiyi Jelili Abudugana, a former
UNILAG student union leader can be reached through
abudugana2000@yahoo.com
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