Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has stated that pioneer EFCC Chairman Nuhu Ribadu, informed him while on exile in the UK that he was being used by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Soyinka, who berated the former President for interfering in the war against corruption, wondered, in an interview with the latest edition of Zero Tolerance magazine, a publication of the EFCC, “Why should a President involve himself in what is already structurally established and dedicated to that purpose?”

According to him, “I warned your former boss, Ribadu, I told him that, your task will be done when in the course of your investigation; you discover that the source of the problem is the very person who appointed you.

“He looked shocked a bit, and eventually he and I met in London, after he was removed and (the current Governor of Kaduna State Mallam Nasir) el-Rufai was also in exile after they tried to kill him. We met and Ribadu refused to sit down. I asked him to sit but he said no, that until I accepted his apology, he won’t sit down. I asked what apology? And he said ‘I should have listened to you. I failed to listen to you.

“Something you have said to me and I failed to listen’ Ribadu admitted that he realised very late that Obasanjo was using him.

“So we have to destroy that link between power and corruption. Audu Ogbeh confirmed what I am telling you. Then, it was ‘go after this one, go after that one, ahh you did not arrest him? Arrest his mother! I am challenging Obasanjo to deny it.

“So, when you are looking for corruption, you should look at the entire stratum of the society, while some forms of corruption are direct, others are indirect”.


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