Ibori Fights Back – Ribadu Is A Serial Liar Who Plotted Against Yar’Adua

Mon Sep, 28 2009

The war of words between former Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori and former chairman of Economic and Financial crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu took a new dimension yesterday when Ibori accused Ribadu of plotting against President Yar’Adua’s government while calling him a “serial liar.”
In a statement signed by Ibori’s media aide, Tony Eluemunor, Ibori denied the accusation by Ribadu that he tried bribing him. He further challenged Ribadu to tell Nigerians who paid for his hotel accommodation during one of his overseas trip.
“He should tell the world who paid for his hotel accommodation at 47 Park Street, Mayfair, London where he stayed on his way from San Francisco, USA.”
Read full text of Ibori’s statement below:
“Mr Nuhu Ribadu engaged in self-glorification in his press statement published on Sunday, 27th September 2009, taking an ignoble flight of fancy instead of addressing the issues I raised in my Media Chat of the preceding Friday, which, by the way, did not focus solely on Ribadu. The indecorum and name-calling in his language was not surprising too; they have combined to become the Ribadu signature tune.

Yes, I maintain that I never, repeat NEVER, bribed or attempted to bribe Ribadu, who always loose with the facts, tried to hoodwink the public by alleging that I was speaking after two years of being investigated. Yet, the bribery allegation I reacted to publicly, was the one he made in a witness statement in London as recently as August 26th 2009. I had to reply to that one publicly because, as Ribadu himself knows, that allegation will not be tested by any trial, as no charge whatsoever, whether related to that bribery allegation or not, has ever been leveled against me in any court of law in the entire United Kingdom. His allegation of two years ago, which I have not publicly reacted to, is being tested in court.

I expected Ribadu to disprove the contradictions I pointed out in his Nigerian and London statements as well as those of his Director of Operations and second in command at the EFCC, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, and Mr. James Garba, a Central Bank of Nigeria staff seconded to EFCC. Instead, he employed his usual rabble-rousing antics of name calling, which was the trade mark of his reign as EFCC chairman.



On my position on resource control and the driving principle behind my determination to redress the injustice done to the people of the Niger Delta, Ribadu asked “if it is in keeping with his promise that he became a billionaire overnight on behalf of the suffering masses of Delta State.” Ribadu should know that before I became Governor, my collective wealth was substantial. Even the London Metropolitan Police admitted in their own witness statement filed in court that one of my private companies earned in excess of $5 million annually. I have been the most investigated Governor in Nigeria and the EFCC and London Metropolitan Police are in possession of my Account statements from the Bank of Austria, Merrill Lynch, Citibank (I was a CitiGold member—a club of high net worth customers) and Barclays Bank before I became a Governor. Both the EFCC under Ribadu and the London Metropolitan Police have dubiously refused to exhibit these Account statements to maintain their lie.

Second, Nuhu Ribadu must be a serial liar, to attempt to deny that he approached me to help unseat the present President. This is one of his numerous on-going attempts to recruit both local and international friends to undermine President Yar’Adua’s administration. The persons he approached, including me, are still alive and they have given testimonies to security agencies. Ribadu even contacted a high-ranking member of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with complaints that a “sick Yar’Adua” should not be allowed to remain in office, and also wanted a serving judge and member of the electoral panel to convince the team of INEC officials to concur with his evil plot that the ballot papers were not serially numbered - to damage Yar’Ardua’s defence. And he did this with some of his foreign friends who, to date, still wish President Yar’Adua dead.

Thirdly, Ribadu said: “I am also open to his friendship but that will never be at the expense of my loyalty to my fatherland and commitment to transparency and honesty in public office.” Ribadu should shut up and stop boasting about having been Nigeria’s anti-corruption Czar. He compromised himself, politicizing his office, and teamed up with politicians to distribute funds to influence National Assembly members in the failed third-term tenure elongation gambit. He was a politician, not anti-corruption fighter.

Ribadu should wait for the persecution by him and his London Metropolitan Police friends of my associates to break open in a full trial. Then I will enclose copious documentary evidence to substantiate every claim I have made. The opportunistic and brazen-faced Ribadu is nothing but a fraudulent “anti – corruption Czar” who operated with instruments of blackmail.

He should tell the world who paid for his hotel accommodation at 47 Park Street, Mayfair, London where he stayed on his way from San Francisco, USA. Additionally, Ribadu went about soliciting for contributions from those he claimed to be investigating, towards a non-existent EFCC Football Club, for which he collected large sums of money which was never applied for the purpose they were collected. This may account for one of the reasons why he made away with many files when he was leaving office, and has refused to formally hand over to his successor in office to date. Has he declared how much he so collected?

Worst of all, Ribadu denies that he lobbied me to be Inspector General of Police, (IGP). I never expected him to admit that fact. But if he did not approach me to be IGP, at what point did he inform me of his intention to seek appointment into a narcotics control arm of the United Nations Organisation? That day he appealed to me to keep it away from the public, but surprisingly, former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, told me, a few days after, that Mr. Ribadu was indeed seeking for the office and he heard this from the former World Bank boss, Paul Wolfensohn. Of course, Ribadu also pursued Kalu everywhere in the name of investigation, while, all the time hiding evidence that Kalu had millions of dollars in foreign accounts before he became Abia State Governor.

Furthermore, that Ribadu claims to have deposited $15 million at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is not, and cannot, be proof that I gave that or any sum of money to him. Also, what greater felon could there be than he, an architect of a third-term tenure for a President whose constitutional entitlement is for two terms only, and who tried to induce, harass, embarrass and humiliate National Assembly members to support the project.

Now, Ribadu is using colonial police in London to settle petty political scores in Nigeria, and he, a lawyer, denigrates and disrespects our judicial system by constant allegation of judicial incompetence. My advice to Ribadu is that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has been elected the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by the Grace of Almighty God. Ribadu should respect the mandate Nigerians gave to Yar’Adua and stop hopping from one international capital of the world to another like a junketing gadabout, maligning the elected President of his country, to entertain the world and aggrandize himself.

Ribadu also ranted he would use the London Metropolitan Police to send a certain Nigerian businessman to prison for alleged money laundering because he wrote and published a damaging piece about former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s vindictiveness. He actually tried to but only succeeded in wasting British taxpayer’s money as the businessman was discharged and acquitted on the orchestrated money laundering charges. My question is, was that businessman a public officer in Nigeria? Was it not his masters’ bidding to go after that man? May I also ask if Otunba Mike Adenuga, the eminently popular business mogul and chairman of Globacom, whom he targeted and hounded into exile, is also a public officer?

The same Ribadu, master-minded the ex-convict plot against me. One night after a meeting of the co-conspirators to frame and denigrate me at all costs, Ribadu called the businessman to “shoot his mouth” as usual. That same night, the benefactor phoned former Vice President Atiku Abubakar alerting him of Ribadu’s plot against me.

Sooner Nigerians would know how Ribadu purchased by proxy the shares that he owns in his friends’ companies. Ribadu would then have to tell the world whether he bought those shares with proceeds from his salary. No wonder he has failed to declare his assets - which is tantamount to a crime.

Finally, Ribadu, on our friendship, said: “Since I couldn’t see you when I visited Lagos recently why don’t you visit me in London to catch up with your other friends”? I will accept his invitation to visit London as soon as he can prove to me that the matter in London is not driven by malice and vindictiveness. Let me remind Ribadu my friend, that by now I am too smart to be caught in a political game which himself and his collaborators in the London Metropolitan Police are playing. If he indeed believes that the trial of the women they have held hostage in London is not political, he should allow the process of the court to prove that, instead of pronouncing people guilty even before they appear in court as he usually did as EFCC chairman in Nigeria. He is not a staff of the London Metropolitan Police. He is not a member of the Crown Prosecution Service. Neither is he a member of the jury nor the Judge in the matter.

If you, Nuhu Ribadu, a Nigerian in London, think you have the right to invite me to London to face some trumped up charges, I, a Nigerian with all the rights as a Nigerian, invite you to Nigeria your home country, where you are a pitiable fugitive from justice.”

http://www.thetimesofnigeria.com/TON/Article.aspx?id=2190

this is more interesting than I thought?

Obviously Ibori is a criminal, but one should ask why Ribadu has chosen to participate in this kind of low-life child play.
Is this how to help your people or country?
It is also obvious that Ibori has nothing to lose at this point, but when is Ribadu finally going to realize that he's starting to repeat the same mistake from the past?

Enough of this cheap talk, it's either you're in or out.

May I also ask if Otunba Mike Adenuga, the eminently popular business mogul and chairman of Globacom, whom he targeted and hounded into exile, is also a public officer?

The same Ribadu, master-minded the ex-convict plot against me. One night after a meeting of the co-conspirators to frame and denigrate me at all costs, Ribadu called the businessman to “shoot his mouth” as usual. That same night, the benefactor phoned former Vice President Atiku Abubakar alerting him of Ribadu’s plot against me.

Who are these guys to Ibori? Are they connected to bunkering? What is the connection?

i would trust ribadu over ibori any day!but i have to admit,its hard knowing whats true and whats ficticious. i dont beleive ribadu is 100% clean but he is much cleaner than ibori.

Beaf:


Sooner Nigerians would know how Ribadu purchased by proxy the shares that he owns in his friends’ companies. Ribadu would then have to tell the world whether he bought those shares with proceeds from his salary. No wonder he has failed to declare his assets - which is tantamount to a crime.

If failure to declare assets is tantamount to a crime then what is looting of government treasury tantamount to?

If the only case against Ribadu till date is the non declaration of assets then I can boldly state that those fighting corruption are grossly incompetent as we have a lot of corrupt government officials that declared their assets, stole government and public money and are still working around as free men.

Depilot:

Obviously Ibori is a criminal, but one should ask why Ribadu has chosen to participate in this kind of low-life child play.
Is this how to help your people or country?
It is also obvious that Ibori has nothing to lose at this point, but when is Ribadu finally going to realize that he's starting to repeat the same mistake from the past?

Enough of this cheap talk, it's either you're in or out.

The reason Ribadu has chosen to participate is because we have seen politicians tell lies repeatitively until it is assumed as truth. So sometimes the best thing is to knock down these lies especially in a country like Nigeria where people assume that every story printed on our National dailies are true especially when they are unchalleneged.

So how Ribadu responds is entirely up to Ribadu and there is no right or wrong way to respond.

However I hope Ibori continues washing his dirty linens in public as he will only continue embarassing the Yar'adua Government. He has informed us that he appointed Mike Okiro. I hope he continues to confess to his many dodgy activities.


By the way someone should inform Ibori that even Nigerians packing shit in London have the capacity to procure a hotel room, let alone an international consultant on anti-corruption.

Kai, Mr. Ibori, U dey take style lie small small o! You do not have to be ", of high net worth customers" to  be  a CitiGold member—card carrier. I know it's called "Preferred customer" and  all u need tp get one is a very good job, impeccable credit rating, and of course the ability to pay back when you bills comes due.   I have one, and I am not a "high net worth customer, " what ever dat means; Nairalanders, I stand to be corrected o! Ibori, e be like say dis na one dent or should I say, one strike for inside your defense. Two more strikes, U r out.

and someone should also inform Ibori and his spin doctors that accussing Ribadu of being an enemy of an unelected, unproductive Government can only endear him to the Nigerian people.

I think Ribadu has hit Ibori in a very bad spot. Its when someone does something that really hurts you that you begin to bark like a dog and thats exactly what Ibori is doing.

If I were Ribadu, I wouldn't even bother saying anything again. If at all, Il dare him to reveal whatever evidence he has although someone of Ibori's 'con' background can easily get 'witnesses' to support all the thrash he has been saying.

Meanwhile. I read on thisday nespapers that the Attorney General in his usual style has gone back on his word again. This time, he is saying he won't allow the 25 witnesses go to London to testify. Nawao, isn't there a thing called freedom of movement again?

Ribadu is really a menace. And i like it. Keep on going nuhu, no shaking.

MrCrackles,

I concur, this Ibori bastard assumes every other Nigerian is of the same immoral and corrupt stock as himself and his mafia fraudster lawyer Andoooaka. They fail to realise that their days are numbered.

Nasty stuff!
But erm . . .are we saying that Ribadu is clean or just cleaner than Ibori? 

Ribadau is the least of your problems now Mr. Ibori

Without any question, Ibori and others are nothing but enemies of Nigeria, but at least Ibori is showing an effort to face all the charges against him. He's not running from Nigeria or London, he's doing whatever he has to do to defend himself like a man and a citizen of Nigeria (regardless of the outcome of the cases).

Now, is Ribadu doing the same? Is Ribadu clean? Is Ribadu disobeying any law? Is Ribadu running? And what exactly is Ribadu is running from?
If security is Ribadu's concern, I do not think he would have had the balls to show up again in Nigeria just couple of weeks ago.
You or Ribadu may not see it, but the man is stepping on everyone of us.

And this is the only problem I personally have with Ribadu.

Depilot:

Without any question, Ibori and others are nothing but enemies of Nigeria, but at least Ibori is showing an effort to face all the charges against him. He's not running from Nigeria or London, he's doing whatever he has to do to defend himself like a man and a citizen of Nigeria (regardless of the outcome of the cases).

Now, is Ribadu doing the same? Is Ribadu clean? Is Ribadu disobeying any law? Is Ribadu running? And what exactly is Ribadu is running from?
If security is Ribadu's concern, I do not think he would have had the balls to show up again in Nigeria just couple of weeks ago.
You or Ribadu may not see it, but the man is stepping on everyone of us.

And this is the only problem I personally have with Ribadu.

Ribadu may be stepping on you but he is certainly not stepping on me.

Ribadu is surely not stepping on me either.

So I don't know who depilot is refering to?

Depilot this kind of comment coming from you on a week when the number 1 Justice minister in the country is openly defending Ibori for laundering Nigeria's money abroad is just too dificult to swallow.
If Aondoakaa and the Presidency will go as far as obstructing Ibori's trial abroad, does it not say something to you that these men will not implement the country's laws honestly in the case of Ribadu as they were doing while he was still in Nigeria.

We all have a right to support what we like, but to spin clear lies as to mean that folks like Ribadu are the enemies of Nigeria is just an attack on everyone else's sensibilities.

Ribadu may be stepping on you but he is certainly not stepping on me.

It is very common for certain Nigerians not to see beyond their nose.
Trust me, I did not expect you to grasp the concept of the discussion.

Keep walking my man.

I refuse to sing the song of praise like others without clearly knowing what went down or what is going on. Ribadu is not helping himself or Nigeria by his nonsensical action, but further degrading our low standard.

Depilot:

I refuse to sing the song of praise like others without clearly knowing what went down or what is going on. Ribadu is not helping himself or Nigeria by his nonsensical action, but further degrading how low standard.

Well let me tell you what you know is going on

Nothing is degrading Nigeria more than sending the most effective corruption fighter in the country to school, as it were then the IG of police claimed he was being prepared for greater responsibility, and then when he was due to graduate efforts were made to prevent his graduation and eventually the same Governement that feigned ignorance of that drama went ahead to demote and expel him from the police force.

Larmorde was drafted in as Ribadu's second in command and for un-explained reasons removed and sent to a small village in the North just because he tried to continue the fight against corruption as it should be fought.

All of this were done and the rest of the world saw it.
We do not live in the era when this country fought a brutal civil war because some folks could simply conceal what was said in Aburi.

This is the digital age and whatever you do, everyone else who cares will know.

So the deluded thinking that somehow the way to maintain Nigeria's integrity is for Ribadu to come back home and allow himself to locked up in a whole and if possible poisoned eventually; does not hold water.

Ribadu will not come back for you guys to kill him, you can go hang if you like.

I think the honest questions the Yar'adua Presidency should be asking themselves is why Ribadu has more legitimacy in the eyes of the International community than the sitting Nigerian Government.

Depilot:

It is very common for certain Nigerians not to see beyond their nose.
Trust me, I did not expect you to grasp the concept of the discussion.

Keep walking my man.

Look at the empty barrel who has been writing nonsense talking. I actually deleted some of what I wrote in my last post because it would have been a waste of time explaining anything to a clown like you.

You come here and shamelessly twist facts to suit your myopic point of view and expect people to swallow the nonsense you are dishing out?

The difference here is, I may disagree with the way Ribadu has chosen to react or respond to all these charges or to all his enemies, but I do not dislike the man. And this is my reason why I think he should seek a different approach.
What he has shown us so far isn't going to solve anything, but only makes the criminals look like bunch of angels.

For me, Nigeria comes first.

Afam: don't waste your time, keep walking.

@mikeansy:
Do you honestly think Ribadu's action so far has been effective?

Nigerians are confussed people.

Depilot:

@mikeansy:
Do you honestly think Ribadu's action so far has been effective?

Effective in what?

In everything.

mikeansy:

Effective in what?

Mikeansy,

Be careful so that this guy don't lead you into an endless question and answer session as his motive is far from genuine.

Sometimes it pays to ignore spin doctors and liars who masquerade as Nigerians wanting change for the better.

Afam

My brother I am not honestly scared of spin doctors
I will always respond with the truth.

Depilot:

In everything.

I am not sure what you mean by everything. Ribadu does not occupy any position of authority in the Nigerian Government at the moment, neither is he the minister for everything. So I don't understand why you want him to be effective in everything.

But what I do know is Ribadu has been very effective in exposing the hypocrisy of the Yar'adua Government. This would have kept the Nigerian Government a lot more honest if they had any shame in them but unfortunately they dont.

Afam: When are you going to finally realize that it doesn't require muscle to mostly get things done correctly?

Depilot:

Afam: When are you going to finally realize that it doesn't require muscle to mostly get things done correctly?

What was that? What has muscle got to do with the issue on ground?

In any case, I am not a muscle person. I prefer logic, fact, truth and common sense.

What was that? What has muscle got to do with the issue on ground?

In any case, I am not a muscle person. I prefer logic, fact, truth and common sense

Good for you.