By Mark Heinrich
VIENNA, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The chief of the United Nations crime office said on Monday he was concerned about the removal of the head of Nigeria's anti-corruption agency.
Antonio Maria Costa wrote to Nigeria's president on Jan. 7 saying the sidelining of Nuhu Ribadu could hobble the crackdown on fraud in Nigeria and send the wrong message to EU donors who poured $35 million into the project via the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
"The jury is still out. (But) there are reasons for us to be concerned about the removal of Mr Ribadu," Costa told Reuters in an interview at his Vienna office.
Costa, who is guiding an uphill effort to carry out the U.N. anti-corruption convention of 2003, said he would hold talks with Ribadu later this week.
Costa expressed doubt about a decision announced by Nigeria's national police chief to send Ribadu, a ranking police officer, to a one-year policy and strategic studies course at a remote institute in central Nigeria.
"Someone discovered in Ribadu's CV that he had not undergone formal police training, so they decided after five years (in office) that he had to get it. It looks like a decision taken at the senior bureaucratic level," said Costa.
Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua was elected last May pledging zero tolerance for corruption in a country internationally notorious for the scourge.
Costa said more and more of the world's political leaders were being elected on clean government platforms but were often thwarted by senior officials in the bureaucracy, judiciary and police who survived electoral changes. Full Story
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