LAGOS (AFP) — Nigeria's top anti-corruption official has been dismissed in a surprise move that sparked charges from human rights activists of political manoeuvring, police said Saturday.
Nuhu Ribadu, who chaired Nigeria's powerful Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for the past three years, was relieved of his functions on Thursday ostensibly to pursue studies in the central town of Kuru, police said.
Federal police head Mike Okiro said Ribadu's departure had nothing to do with political infighting, telling reporters it was a routine exercise.
But human rights activists and other critics warned that his ouster threatened the country's democracy and spelt disaster for the anti-corruption campaign in one of the world's most fraudulent countries.
Acclaimed writer and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka described Ribadu's dismissal as an "assault" on Nigerian democracy, while Human Rights Watch said it destroyed the credibility of the country's war on corruption.
Critics claim Ribadu has been used by the country's former leader Olusegun Obasanjo to get rid of his political enemies -- charges the 45-year-old police officer vehemently denies.
Instead, he has pointed to his successes, claiming his commission has pursued more than a thousand corruption suspects and recuperated roughly a billion dollars in embezzled funds.
More recently, the commission has arrested and investigated a number of high officials, including current and former state governors. Among them: the former governor of Delta state considered close to Nigerian president Umaru Yar'Adua.
Yar'Adua, who came to power in May, has made fighting corruption one of the main themes of his administration -- which is also trying to dismantle the system it inherited from Obasanjo.
Observers have given the country's new leader a mixed report card and said that while he appears more sincere than his predecessor, he lacks Obasanjo's clout and decisiveness.
The world's eighth leading oil exporter, Nigeria is listed as one of the world's most corrupt countries by the watchdog group Transparency International.
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