ICPC posts N82.57b, N3.2b recoveries for 2020, 2021

Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanye, has said cash and asset recoveries for 2020 are N82.57 billion.

He added the total recoveries from January to September 2021 are N3.2 billion.

Speaking at a workshop organised by Transparency International, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in Abuja, yesterday, the ICPC boss hinted that money saved from personnel, overhead and capital costs in 2020 were N147 billion and N25.65 billion for 2021.

Addressing the topic, “Fighting corruption in Nigeria: Achievements and challenges of anti-corruption agencies (ICPC and EFCC),” Owasanye submitted that graft in Nigeria was brutish, predatory and barefaced.

Represented by the Director, System Study and Review Department, Abbia Udofia, the ICPC chair stated that corruption “is regarded as the sole obstacle to economic development and political integration.”

Owasanye stressed that the media has a key role to play in the success of the anti-corruption fight, particularly in areas of education and information dissemination.

In his presentation, a lawyer and historian in the Faculty of Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Dr. Adetunjo Ojo Ogunyemi, said there was no elite consensus about Nigeria.

Handling the topic, “History of corruption and its effects on national development,” Ogunyemi said to address the menace in the country, there was a need to restructure the nation’s Administration of Criminal Justice System and make political offices financially unattractive.

He pointed out that there is also a need to strengthen the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to inquire into and prosecute unexplained wealth by civil and public servants.

“The Auditor-General must be a professional appointed by certified professional bodies and not from the federal and state civil services,” Ogunyemi added.