OKEY MUOGBO, Abuja- 30.05.2006

Answering questions on African Independent Television (AIT) programme, Ribadu said the president should have launched the fund after leaving office in 2007.

“If the president had sought my advice, I would have told him to launch the fund after leaving office”, Ribadu said in reply to a question from the panel of interviewers.

On why his commission had not prosecuted governors and other public officers who donated to the presidential library, the EFCC boss said his commission had not traced any of such donations to public funds.

According to him, all the donations came from private funds, insisting that if any of the donations had been traced to public funds, the commission would have taken on the donors.

The EFCC boss said his commission slowed down its activities since February because of the third term issue so that the public would not see the commission as being a part of the elongation agenda.

He said that his men would resume their investigations now that the third term issue was over.

Ribadu, in answer to another question, said the EFCC was beaming its searchlight on the emerging presidential aspirants, assuring Nigerians that the commission would never allow corrupt people to rule the country.

He said the commission could not do much on allegations that National Assembly members were given N50 million to give President Obasanjo a third term because, according to him, there were no evidences or traces of the movement of the money.