(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2618253/ForumPhotos/Mallam%20Nuhu%20Ribadu%20-%20ACN%20Presidential%20Candidate.jpg) Nuhu Ribadu was born November 21, 1960. He graduated from the Nigerian Law School and was called to the bar in 1984, before joining the Nigeria Police, where he rose to become head of the Legal and Prosecution department, Police Headquarters, Abuja. His 18-year service in the Nigeria Police culminated in his appointment as pioneer Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in April, 2003.
Prior to his appointment as the Chairman of EFCC, Ribadu served as key operational officer in the General Investigation Department and the Force Criminal Investigation Department of the of the Nigerian Police. He was also a member of the highly commended Failed Banks Tribunal that sanitized the rottenness in the Nigerian Banking sector of the late eighties. He helped pioneer the setting up of the Legal and Prosecutions Department of the Nigerian Police, a unit that served as think tank and policy nerve center of the police.
Ribadu has been a recipient of several awards as a police officer, prosecutor and Chairman, EFCC. He received the Inspector General of Police Awards in 1997, 1998 and 2000 and the Special Commendation of Mr. President in 2005, for the successful prosecution of several advance fee fraud, banking fraud and sundry economic crime cases. He was also specially commended by the Accountant General of the Federation for successfully prosecuting some corrupt public servants in 1999.
He was a key member of the Economic Management Team from 2003 to 2008 that initiated and drove the wide ranging public sector reforms, which laid the foundations for the socio-economic rejuvenation of Nigeria. Along side this responsibility, he also served as a member of the Presidential Committee on Trade Malpractices, the National Joint Intelligence Board, the National Committee on Public Service Reforms and the National Cybercrime Working Group.
Ribadu has been widely acknowledged as bringing to his job a deep passion and an exemplary sense of dedication and efficiency. In three years, the EFCC under his leadership built the now most celebrated Crimes Training and Research Institute in the sub-region. The agency also recorded about 200 criminal convictions, a record that is far ahead of the total record of the police in its 147 years of existence, and far ahead of the Attorney-General's office in the 49 years of the country's post-colonial history.
These achievements helped make the EFCC a reference Law Enforcement Agency on the continent; and the bold investigation, prosecution, and conviction of Nigeria's hitherto untouchable politicians and businessmen earned him the reputation of being a foremost and respected anti-corruption crusader in the world. It is to his record that he rejected a N30 million bribe from one of the country's major money laundering offenders in 2005, although the most sensational report of his ethical conduct thus far was the 2007 rejection of a $15 million bribe from a former governor from one of Nigeria's Niger Delta states. The businessman has been convicted for the crime and the former governor is currently undergoing trial.