YAR ADUA APPROVED RIBADU STUDY LEAVE

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua may have been reluctant to approve the study leave for Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), THISDAY checks have revealed.
The reluctance may have been because the president needed wider consultation but was forced to approve the course in the face of relentless media accusation that the study leave was a ploy to shield former governors from prosecution, official sources said.
Indeed, the president had only just received the request from Mr Mike Okiro, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), to send Ribadu on a senior management course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru, Plateau State, when news got round that Ribadu had been removed, whereas the approval for the course was only given Friday last week, four days after it broke in the media.
According to officials conversant with the development, when Okiro informed Ribadu of the course, the EFCC chairman reportedly asked Okiro if the President had been informed about the decision.
The IGP was said to have replied in the negative, asking: “Do you think the president needs to know about this? It’s a routine course for senior officers in the force.”
“Ribadu told Okiro that with his position as chairman of EFCC, he was reporting directly to the President and only the President could send him on a course of this nature,” the source said.
The IGP then decided to take the matter directly to Yar’Adua.
On meeting with Yar’Adua on Christmas eve, Okiro was said to have presented the file containing the names of those to be sent on the course.
Presidency sources said the view of the Villa was that approving courses was not the job of the president. However, with the name of Ribadu on the list, the president knew the import and decided to think through it, the source added.
It is believed that if the President wanted to approve the course, he would have done it there and then but chose to be reticent on the matter.
By the next day, the media attention began and speculations were rife as many imputed political motives. Coming during a holiday period when the file was still at the presidency and the issue had not been addressed, the President was said to have wondered what the hot air was all about.
With the widespread criticism, culminating in Prof. Wole Soyinka's statement over the issue, the President came to the conclusion that only one decision could be taken on the matter: to approve the course and protect the Police high command.
The President's opinion was that Ribadu had not been removed since he was only going on a course in February. When Ribadu completes the course, official sources told THISDAY, the next line of action would be taken.
Ribadu, who was promoted to the rank of an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) by former president Olusegun Obasanjo, had not gone on any senior officers’ courses for the rank of a commissioner of police and that of an AIG.
This development, the source said, did not conform to the rules and procedures for promotion and appointments.
Sources at the Police headquarters confirmed that of the serving 17 AIGs in the police today, only Muazu Hadejia and Ribadu are yet to attend a senior officers’ course.
The others are either fellows of the National Defence College (FWC) or alumni of the NIPSS.
More than 17 Commissioners of Police (CPs) and Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) have gone to NIPSS and the National Defence College while five serving Deputy Commissioners and one CP are currently attending the National Defence College course in Abuja.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued by the EFCC yesterday, the commission has dismissed claims that there is a conflict between the president and its chairman over the NIPSS course.
The statement, signed by Mr. Osita Nwajah, Head, Media & Publicity, read: “In the past few days, the EFCC as well as its Executive Chairman, Nuhu Ribadu, have been the subject of intense media debate generated by the decision to send the EFCC Chairman on a course at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State.
“The Commission has however refused to be drawn into the public debate.
“EFCC now wishes to clarify that it is the position of the Commission that government can send any public officer on training to enhance his or her performance and continued service to the nation. And, as a loyal citizen and public servant, the opinion of Ribadu is not any different from the expressed position of the Commission.
“It is however worrying that the NIPSS debate has opened a window of blackmail and calumny for many of those who disagree with the Commission. This group has routinely planted stories in the media, which they make-believe as being sponsored by the Executive Chairman, in an attempt at discrediting the authorities, especially Mr. President. The stories which have explored all sorts of high wire politics scenarios and power tussle permutations are calculated at presenting the Executive Chairman as being in conflict with Mr. President and the leadership of the Nigeria Police. Nothing can be farther from the truth.
“Further, the Commission wishes to deal with the insinuation being peddled in certain quarters that the President is interfering in the work of the Commission.
The Commission hereby puts on record that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has never interfered in the work of EFCC and has supported the Commission’s resolve to bring to book, all who have committed any of the crimes identified in the EFCC Establishment Act (2004) and all other laws that the Commission is mandated to enforce.
“The Executive Chairman, EFCC, wishes to seize this opportunity to assure Mr. President, the leadership of the Nigeria Police and indeed, all patriotic Nigerians, of his absolute loyalty and dedication to the service of our fatherland.
“It bears restating here that as a loyal public servant, Nuhu Ribadu has no problem with the decision of Mr. President on the recommendation of the Inspector General of Police, to send him on a self-improvement course of study at the NIPSS, Kuru. Any story that suggests otherwise is only meant to cast him in the bad light of an unnecessary antagonism against government and the Police high command and should be discounted.
“The Commission wishes to thank the general public for the tremendous support it has received in the discharge of its duties.”