Farida Waziri a serial liar- Nuhu Ribadu

Mr. Ribadu says it was saddening that
after all the damage she inflicted on the
operations and credibility of the EFCC,
Mrs Waziri, could turn round to deride the
commission.
A former Chairman of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission
, EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, has described his
successor, Farida Waziri, as a liar in
response to Mrs Waziri’s claim that Mr.
Ribadu served under her.
Mr Ribadu, on Thursday, stepped into a
controversy generated by a series of
interviews conducted by the media unit of
the EFCC with past and present
government leaders and officials.
In one of the interviews, published in the
commission’s magazine, Zero Tolerance,
former President Olusegun Obasanjo
questioned Mrs. Waziri’s qualification as
head of the EFCC, and said her tenure
severely reversed Nigeria’s gains in anti-
corruption war under Mr. Ribadu.
The comments drew a fierce response
from Mrs. Waziri who accused the former
president of manipulating the EFCC with
Mr. Ribadu as his tool, to seek a third
term in office.
She defended her competence for the job
by citing a string of academic and
professional qualifications, amongst
which she claimed to have supervised Mr.
Ribadu and the current EFCC chairman,
Ibrahim Lamorde, when they all served in
the Nigeria Police.
“To further expose the height of mischief
in the allegations,” she said of Mr.
Obasanjo’s comments, “the past and
present chairmen of the EFCC have both
worked under me, yet someone can open
his mouth to say I am not qualified to
head the same agency.”
Mr. Ribadu denied those claims on
Thursday, and labelled Mrs Waziri a
“merchant of falsehood” who recycles
“crooked statements to the point of cliché,
in spite of attempts at clarifications.”
Inasmuch as I try not to comment on
EFCC after my tenure, I found Mrs
Waziri's utter lies totally unsafe to let
pass.
— Nuhu Ribadu (@NuhuRibadu)
September 12, 2013
He said it was inappropriate for Mrs
Waziri to claim he worked under her.
Sad. Again Farida Waziri went to town
with her lies that I worked under her or
that she "trained" me. Pure lie. I never
worked with her.
— Nuhu Ribadu (@NuhuRibadu)
September 12, 2013
“This is a naked lie that she keeps
flaunting to seek undue relevance and
validate her own appointment. At no time
in my career did I work under the same
section or unit as her. In fact, contrary to
Waziri’s claim that she “trained” me, it
was I that actually lectured her and
others, on fraud investigation and
prosecution, when she was newly posted
as Head of Special Fraud Unit, even
though she was my senior in rank,” the
former EFCC boss said in statement he
personally signed.
“I was then the Head of Prosecution at the
Tribunals under the leadership of Mr
Sunday Ehindero, then CP Legal,” Mr.
Ribadu said.
Mr. Ribadu also disputed another claim
about being used to push Mr. Obasanjo’s
third term.
He said it was evident that Mrs Waziri,
who was nowhere near EFCC at the time,
was ignorant of what transpired.
It was also uncharitable of her to have
insinuated that EFCC was used to push
for Third Term. She was nowhere close to
know what we did
— Nuhu Ribadu (@NuhuRibadu)
September 12, 2013
We actually halted our works on the
politically exposed persons throughout
the period of the third term debacle to
insulate the Commission
— Nuhu Ribadu (@NuhuRibadu)
September 12, 2013
Mr. Ribadu said it was saddening that
after all the damage inflicted on the
operations and credibility of the EFCC by
Mrs Waziri, she turned back to abuse the
young men and women who had put in
all their energy in cleaning up the country
especially during that critical time, by
dismissing their work and sacrifice.

“EFCC was not about Nuhu Ribadu.
Rubbishing its work, therefore, is like
insulting all the thousands of its
operatives across the country who put
their lives on the line to make Nigeria a
better country. If Mrs Waziri has a
personal score to settle with anybody, she
should direct her attack at the person but
not the organisation,” Mr. Ribadu said.