I never undermined fight against graft, says Ben Nwabueze

Constitutional lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Prof. Ben Nwabueze has refuted the allegation that he undermined the crusade against corruption.

He, however, insisted that the war against graft under the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was unproductive.

Nwabueze restated that his position would continue to be that the fight against graft should be according to law.

He was reacting to a statement credited to Ribadu, where he (Ribadu) reportedly accused Nwabueze of discrediting his work as EFCC chairman.

He said: “My attention has been drawn to what Ribadu said about me at a lecture organised by the Law Chambers of Joe Kyari Gadzama on December 1, 2016 on the theme, ‘Corruption and the Nigerian Economy: Lawyers as Change Agents.’

“He said, among other things, that I, with others, teamed up with politicians to frustrate and undermine the country’s efforts to fight corruption, and to discredit the work he, as chairman of the EFCC, was doing in prosecuting the war.”

His words: “Apparently Ribadu was reacting, as he is entitled to do, to what I wrote about him in my book, ‘Current Issues and Problems in the Workings of Constitutional Democracy in Nigeria (2011), pages 92 – 101, titled Subversions of the Constitution by Nuhu Ribadu in the name of the War Against Corruption published in The Guardian.

“What the public expects of Nuhu Ribadu is, not just to whip up sentiments in favour of himself, to play to the gallery or to curry favours with the Buhari administration, but to adduce concrete evidence in rebuttal of the facts stated in my write-up, in order to show that his impugned actions as chairman of the EFCC are not subversive of the Nigerian constitution, and what positive effect his subversive actions have had in curbing or eradicating the rampancy of corruption in Nigeria.”