The government of Nigeria has pressurised its most prominent anti-corruption official to step down, weeks after the arrest of a powerful former governor from the ruling party on corruption charges.
The official, Nuhu Ribadu, earlier said in an interview that he had not decided whether to resign. But a top official on his Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely Mr Ribadu would be able to keep his position.
"There's no way he can stay at the commission," the official said.
Mr Ribadu's departure has long been rumoured after years in which he has targeted some of the most allegedly corrupt officials in one of the world's most corrupt nations.
Among his targets have been several former governors prominent in President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's ruling party, including James Ibori of Delta state, who was arrested last month on corruption and money-laundering charges.
The head of Nigeria's police force, Mike Okiro, announced last week that Mr Ribadu had been ordered to attend a year-long training course at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, a research group in the city of Jos. Mr Yar'Adua's spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi, said the president supported Mr Ribadu's reassignment. "I believe in Ribadu and the work he is doing," Mr Adeniyi said in an interview in the Guardian newspaper in Nigeria. But he criticised what he said was a "propaganda blitz" from Mr Ribadu's office in the aftermath of Mr Okiro's announcement.
"It's the timing that's most distressing. One of the biggest fishes in the corruption net had just been nabbed," said Wole Soyinka, a Nobel laureate in literature and outspoken critic of government misdeeds.
Mr Soyinka called Mr Ribadu "a bulldog" who had inspired confidence and trust among Nigerians. "A lot of damage has been done by his removal," he said.
Corruption has dogged Nigeria since the massive surge of oil production in the 1970s, when billions of dollars in profits began enriching a relatively small but powerful elite.
April's national elections, in which outgoing president Olusegun Obasanjo used his ruling party's machinery to help elect Mr Yar'Adua as his handpicked successor, were marked by violence, ballot-stuffing and other irregularities. - (Washington Post service)