The ongoing fight against corruption in Nigeria is yielding positive results after the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, revealed that the Commission recovered more than N50 billion between 2019 and over N10 billion in 2024.

In a keynote address at the International Center for Investigative Reporting (ICIR)’s Open Contract Reporting Project (OCRP) close-out and journalism awards ceremony held in Abuja on Tuesday, Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu noted that ICIR deserves a pat on its back for its Open Contract Reporting Project, which helped the Commission look into some suspicious projects around the country.

“The OCRP is good and remarkable. You have helped the public institutions in reporting some of the challenges that are happening within the public sector. Procurement fraud is a challenge that all of us must come together and see how we can tackle it. Once we reduce procurement fraud, we have a lot of resources to use in the development of the country,” he said.

The ICPC boss also stressed the need for collaboration across all agencies and called for the empowerment of citizens so they can report to the appropriate agencies when they notice these lapses.

“When we asked MDAs to bring out their procurement plan, the ICPC found out that most of the MDAs executing projects do not have the mandate to do so. When we look at what is happening in the public sector, it is very sad because many people are out to divert public funds. We have had a case where somebody spent N7 million on a project that couldn’t have cost more than N100,000.

“He went on to say, ‘I have taken it, and what can you do about it? Let’s go to court.’ It is as bad as that.”

Aliyu stressed the need to strengthen oversight mechanisms to rigorously enforce the procurement law, saying, “Because when you look at it, most of the procurement processes don’t strictly comply with them because there is laxity in the oversight mechanism.”