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Ribadu Report: Presidency Embarrassed by Report Details Leaked to Media

By on October 26, 2012

President Jonathan is said to be embarrassed by the report

 

Presidential Adviser on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati has said the leakage of the Ribadu report to the media was an attempt to embarrass the Federal Government.

Abati avoided the pertinent issues contained in the document and harped on the fact that the report was leaked first to international news agency, Reuters and then to the local media.

Abati said, “It is strange that government will set up a committee, that report has not been submitted to the authorities that set up the committee and the report will be found on the pages of newspapers.

“The report cannot be taken as an official document because the proper procedure is for committees set up by the government to submit their reports to the government. In principle, this report in the public domain is suspicious because it was not submitted to the appropriate authority.

“If every committee set up by government goes above the system to leak reports, there can be chaos. Whoever leaked the report, if indeed the report is genuine, does not mean well. Whoever is behind it is out to embarrass the government.”

There are indications that the Presidency, through the Petroleum ministry will try to water down the report in order to save face and cover up scandals that implicate several members of the ruling party including past Presidents.

One source said the probable reason the report was leaked was to prevent a scenario where the Petroleum minister, Diezani Madueke, would bury sections of the report that were unflattering to her or her principals and highlight graft under previous governments.

Ministry of Petroleum Resources spokesman, Mr. Kingsley Agha, said, “You cannot cover up the report of the committee. You cannot cover up the report of a committee made up of people of integrity. They will not agree to that. The minister does not have anything to hide; otherwise, she would not have set up the committee.”

“It is too early for me to speak on the report since it has not gone to the President and I have not seen it.”

The Petroleum minister announced that another committee would be set up to look into the Ribadu report.

She said, “We have set up a team that is looking at them across the board to see if there is a difference in opinion or a difference in perspective.

“This team will complete its work and submit a comprehensive report in the next 10 days.”

This move is being deciphered by watchdogs as a desperate attempt to water down the Ribadu report since the Presidency never expected that Ribadu’s report would indict his own administration and rubbish the anti-corruption front being put up to hoodwink Nigerians.

When the Ribadu committee was assembled, the Federal Government was under pressure to hurriedly placate an angry populace, and  Presidential advisers assumed Ribadu, widely known as a an of integrity would be the one to launder the image of the administration at the time.

2 Comments

  1. Pure

    October 26, 2012 at 12:52 pm

    Shut up Abati. Wasn’t the report stamped FINAL given to your oga’s babe aka Diezani? It was submitted to her, so which govt do you refer to again?.

  2. princewill.

    October 26, 2012 at 3:51 pm

    they are fools they don’t want evil to be known by the public and the world at large.