ICPC adds to ex-govs’ headaches

A new sheriff is in town. Hate or like him, President Muhammadu Buhari has a midas touch. Since his assump­tion of office, idle and unproductive government ministries, departments and agencies have suddenly fallen in line. The looting spree has been tamed. For once in a long time, many Nigerians are beginning to have faith in government. Not ready to be left in the cold, even the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), which many Nigerians have described as a toothless bulldog has fallen in line too.
Prior to Buhari’s election, it was a huge burden being called a Nigerian, especially outside the shores of the country. Relevant agencies set up by government to tackle corruption became complacent and looked the other way, while politicians and their accomplices raped our common­wealth. Everyday, petitions were written against ministers and other top government officials. ICPC and other anti-graft agencies were busy, chasing small fries.
When former President Olusegun Obasanjo set up ICPC on the 29th of September 2000, the mandate was to receive and investigate reports of corruption and in appropriate cases, prosecute the offenders. It was also saddled with the responsibility of examining, reviewing and enforcing the correction of corruption prone systems and procedures of public bodies, with a view to eliminat­ing corruption in public life, and to educate and enlighten the public on and against corruption and related offences with a view to enlisting and fostering public support for the fight against corruption.
According to records available to Daily Sun, in the first few years of its existence, the ICPC received over 1000 petitions. In August 2003, about 400 of the petitions were under investigation and about 60 were at various stages of prosecution. Upon the emergence of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2003, the ICPC began to fail to achieve any major conviction. Similar to complaints by the current chairman, Mr. Nta Ekpo, the commis­sion then blamed its inability to act on lack of adequate funding.
In an attempt to quench the public outcry that has greeted its perceived poor performance, last Thursday, indications emerged that the chairman ICPC, Mr. Nta Ekpo may have sanc­tioned a thorough investigation into financial transactions of four ex gov­ernors while they were in office. The four governors who are purportedly under investigation by ICPC include Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Sullivan Chime of Enugu, Ibrahim Shema of Katsina and Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano. The ongoing investigation which has reached an advanced stage, follows series of petitions written against them by whistleblowers and outcry by Nigerians.
But this swift setting up of a committee to probe the four former governors is an isolated case. For instance, in 2012, Dino Melaye was the coordinator of Anti-Corruption Network, but was recently elected as a senator, wrote a petition to the chair­man of ICPC, Mr. Ekpo, accusing the then Niger Delta minister, Godsday Orubebe of corruption and abuse of office.
Melaye in the letter had alleged that Orubebe accepted as gratifica­tion, a palatial mansion on the prop­erty allocated to him in Abuja, FCT, contrary to Section 12 of the Act. The petitioners pointed out that a search report from the Abuja Geographic Information System (AGIS), clearly shows that the land upon which the edifice was erected rightly belongs to the minister.
“It has become an adverse trend in our polity where public office holders under the guise of administra­tive functions illegally divert funds, contracts and even take benefits/grati­fications for contract awards to com­panies whose promise of a reward is highest contrary to Sections 12, 13, 14, 20,22 and 25 of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act, Cap. C31, LFN 2010(hereinafter referred to as the Act),” part of the petition read.
Till date, ICPC did not act on the said petition and Orubebe was never invited for questioning by the agency. Similarly, in August this year, a group, Nigerian Customs Transparen­cy Initiative (NCTI), petitioned ICPC over alleged fraud committed by the immediate-past director-general of Nigeria’s Customs, Mr. Abdullahi Inde Dikko. The group had sought for a thorough probe into several serious allegations including an alleged ex­penditure of N3.5billion on internet facility during Dikko’s tenure.
Dr. James Onoja who signed the petition on behalf of the group also asked the ICPC to beam its searchlight on several other alleged questionable issues and deals by the ex-Customs boss. Some of the al­leged misdeeds include contravention of the Public Service Rule 070318, manipulation of promotions, high-handedness, inflation of purchase of BMW cars for senior officials.
Part of the petition read: “The Customs Board was kept in the dark as promotions were manipulated and Customs Officials were selectively elevated. Bootlickers, favourites and
arrested with the containers two of which disappeared into the thin air ”
In particular, the group urged ICPC to take a critical look at the rev­enue profile of the Customs service. According to the group, “there is false declaration of Annual Customs Revenue Generation. In order to give false impression of excellent perfor­mance, the Customs Service adds figure of the Value Added Tax (VAT) which Customs collects on behalf of Federal inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to the revenue derived from custom duties whereas the same VAT figure has been included in the VAT revenue declared and announced by FIRS as required by law, thereby creating a misleading duplication of revenue figure derived from VAT.
Rather than act on the numerous petitions written against alleged corrupt government officials, ICPC chairman threatened to prosecute and jail petitioners. “In keeping with our Act, we will consider the pros­ecution of professional petitioners who indulge in sending politically motivated, malicious or false peti­tions because we not only waste our time and resources but risk our lives investigating some of these claims,” Nta had stated.
Political observers and commenta­tors are of the view that this declara­tion by ICPC chairman sent a wrong signal to would-be whistleblowers. The observers believe that petition­ers who had genuine cases against alleged treasury looters went into hid­ing while the nation’s commonwealth went into the thin air.
However, some experts who spoke to Daily Sun opined that in order for President Buhari to win the anti-graft war, there was need to overhaul the ICPC and appoint a new chairman to pilot its affairs. Others believe that given the meager resources that were at the disposal of the anti-graft agency, the chairman, Ekpo recorded some modest achievements.
Socrates Ehigiator is a consti­tutional lawyer and activist. In his views, he submitted that the approach adopted by ICPC was wrong and bound to fail. He dumped what he called the abysmal failure of ICPC on the chairman whom he said was unfit to pilot the affairs of the commission under the current administration.
“Basically is that ICPC as a body or parastatal has failed woefully in satisfying the spirit or the inten­tion behind its been set up. Well, in respect of the incumbent chairman, he has only succeeded in meandering the commission into a “directionless directionlessness”. Hitherto ICPC was a toothless bulldog in the days of Justice Mustapha Akanbi. As for today, it is a dead dog,” Mr. Ehigiator affirmed.
Continuing, he said “Mr Ekpo Nta has actually not lived up to expecta­tion. However , I am of the view that the commission should be scrapped, because it has not served any useful purpose since its inception. In any case it could also be merged or fused into EFCC. But if the government is not keen on scrapping the commis­sion, then government should engage the services of great legal minds and renowned jurists to pilot its affairs.
“People like Justice Niki Tobi, Solomon Asemota SAN, Justice Onalaja, to mention but a few. Else the funding of the commission is tantamount to a colossal waste of our resources.”
Ibanga Isine, an award-winning journalist and public commentator, spoke differently. In his views, the chairman has succeeded in where others have failed. He argued that unlike other anti-graft agencies, ICPC has secured many high profile convictions that are never reported in the media. Isine equally argued that ICPC was more tactical in fighting corruption, adding that it does not resort to media trial and convictions.
Isine said: “You cannot say emphatically that the ICPC chair­man has failed. The reason is that the commission has secured hundreds of convictions and is still dragging many Nigerians considered untouchable to court. I think Nigerians are complain­ing about the performance of ICPC because of its methods. Unlike the EFCC that is always on the media, the ICPC works silently and has been securing convictions and recovering loots to the government.
“Those calling for the sack of the chairman of the commission are unaware of the great job done by the agency. My advice is for the commis­sion to be more open and share it’s feats and challenges with Nigerians. The ICPC has won far more cases than any anti-corruption agency in the country, including the EFCC.”
Professor Anthony Omorogie is a former deputy Vice Chancellor of Ambrose Alli University in Edo state. He comments frequently on political goings-on in the country. He blatantly told Daily Sun that ICPC like other anti-graft agencies in the country were selective. He said he has no confidence in the ability of the agency to tackle corruption. He said he expects Buhari to replace the cur­rent chairman in the coming weeks to come.
“Honestly, I have become a cynic about Nigerian appointments. Particularly, at this rudderless period of our history. Generally, I have no confidence in the operations of ICPC & EFCC, particularly now. Their mode of operations is selective and deceptive. It is now fashionable to change guards. Definitely, Buhari will change the present man, either to ap­point his village man or to strengthen his religion. So, our suggestions mean nothing to him,” Professor Omorogie said.
Olalekan Akin is a banker and financial analyst. In his explosive re­sponse, Mr. Akin maintained that the current structure of anti-graft agencies in the country must be overhauled and their respective chairmen replaced with more competent hands. He said if President Buhari must succeed in taming corruption, there was the need to hire the services of no nonsense anti-corruption crusaders as chairmen of the various anti-graft agencies in the country. In his long response, Akin said: “Without mincing words, the functions of the Economic and Fi­nancial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and its ‘brother,’ the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are the traditional functions of their big uncle – The Nigeria Police. However, in a bid to get extra-productivity and improve the performance of the coun­try in its war against fraud, corruption and stealing if I’m not mistaken, Nigeria has engaged the ‘trinity tag team” but I want to ask: ‘Has the fight been productive? What extra has the ICPC contributed in the fight against corruption?’ “The resolve to fight and win the war against corruption in Nigeria led to the promulgation of the Corrupt Practices and other Related offences Act in 2000. The Act was the first bill presented by President Olusegun Obasanjo to the National Assembly for consideration in 1999 and since the end of Obasanjo years, the productivity of the ICPC – I believe, has declined. “At inception, they had the daunting task of ventur­ing into an uncharted territory and putting in place, a structure capable of meeting the challenges that lay ahead with the mandate “to prohibit and prescribe punishment for corrupt practices and other related offences’ and if you ask me, in recent times, the ICPC unlike its all-bark-and-no-bite trinity brother – the EFCC, has been operating in a ghost mode – neither seen nor heard, just there! This raises the question of leadership, what is the leadership of the ICPC doing? Is the leadership okay with the hibernation/ extinction of the ICPC in the losing war against corruption?
“Agreed, prevention is better than cure and the ICPC might claim to have succeeded in putting some pre­ventive structures and procedures to deter corruption in public life. How­ever the focus of the people is more on ‘the one that got away’ and when you remember names like James Ibori, Alameseigha – celebrated high profile corruption cases in Nigeria who remained ‘honorable men’, walked scot-free amongst us until the long hands of justice caught up with them in foreign lands, you cannot but proclaim the incompetence of the ICPC and its brothers.
“If the head is corrupt, the whole body too is corrupt. The Jonathan-led administration has been awarded high marks for its performance regarding entrenching corruption and perhaps this has rubbed off on the ICPC too. The ICPC has gladly looked away while public servants looted the country over-dry. “Now that we have a new sheriff – whose focus on corruption is strong, all guns should be out, blazing. Weak links should be removed or fortified. The President needs to put in competent and trust­worthy characters to help him in the rigorous and challenging fight against corruption. Should the current ICPC structure remain? I do not think so.
“We need men of integrity and courage, who will go all-out in this fight so that sanity would be restored to not just public life but Nigeria as a whole. It’s about time we took another look at our trinity fighters and make the necessary amendments, restructuring, empowerment and po­sitioning as we welcome Change into our land.” Apparently disappointed with the performance of ICPC and other anti-graft agencies, President Buhari recently set up a Presidential Advisory Committee against Cor­ruption. The committee which is headed by Professor Itse Sagay, in the coming weeks will covertly take over the statutory responsibilities of ICPC and EFCC which have failed in their constitutional duties.
The committee’s brief is to advise the administration on the prosecution of the war against corruption and the implementation of required reforms in Nigeria’s criminal justice system. It is also expected to develop compre­hensive interventions for achieving other recommended reforms. “Fund will be managed by Trust Africa, an international development Civil So­ciety Organisation with programme presence in more than 25 African countries,” part of the statement announcing the setting up of the com­mittee read.
With the growing public outcry and President Buhari’s willingness to live up to his anti-corruption mantra, major shake ups in the might be announced in the coming weeks. As expected, embattled chairman of ICPC and his EFCC counterpart, Ibrahim Lamorde might be shown the way out.