A network of anti-corruption groups has accused the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) of engaging in a cover up of corrupt acts by Mike Okiro, a former Inspector General of Police who currently serves as the chairman of the Police Service Commission.
In a joint statement issued today, the Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC) and the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN), expressed dismay that the ICPC had failed to take appropriate action on a petition that detailed serious acts of corruption by Mr. Okiro.
Specifically, the two anti-corruption organizations remarked that Aaron Kaase, a member of the Police Service Commission (PSC), had written a petition to the ICPC accusing Mr. Okiro of illegally appropriating N350 million after the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) had refused to approve the transaction.
According to Mr. Kaase’s allegation, the BPE had denied Mr. Okiro’s request to pay N350 million to contractors nominated by the former IGP for the training of the PSC staff during the recently concluded 2015 general elections.
Despite the BPE’s rejection of the proposal, Mr. Okiro “illegally appropriated the N350 million and spent N217 on the training program,” said the two anti-corruption groups, adding that the chairman of the Police Service Commission “decided not to return the remaining sum of N133 million and other over coated rates which he diverted and converted.”
The statement observed that the ICPC “investigated the allegation and confirmed the diversion and criminal conversion of the said sum of N133 million by Mr. Okiro,” but “instead of recommending Mr. Okiro for prosecution for stealing and diversion of public fund the Independent Corrupt Practices & Other Related Offences Commission ‘advised’ him to refund the said sum of N133 to the coffers of the Federal Government.”
According to the joint statement, the “ICPC has no power whatsoever to advise indicted criminal suspects to refund the money allegedly stolen by them.”
The two groups also noted that the ICPC also confirmed an allegation that Mr. Okiro received N4.6 million in 2013 for a trip to the United States that he never made. Their statement expressed shock that the ICPC failed to make a strong recommendation even though the commission had also confirmed that Mr. Okiro used several fronts to collect various sums of money from the PSC.
The statement also accused the ICPC of deliberately refusing to “direct that Mr. Kaase be recalled from suspension for exposing the corrupt practices of the PSC chairman.
“In view of the foregoing we urge the Presidential Advisory Council to recommend the recall of Mr. Kaase from illegal suspension and the immediate prosecution of Mr. Mike Okiro for corrupt practices without any further delay,” the two anti-corruption organizations suggested in a joint statement signed by Olanrewaju Suraju for CSNAC and Okechukwu Nwagwuma of NOPRIN.