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Buhari Swears In Owasanoye As ICPC Chairman — Seven Months After Nomination

February 4, 2019

At the event, the President said he was “particularly delighted that the ICPC law under which you will operate is robust enough to assist government to sanitise the public sector in service delivery, public procurement, diversion of public revenue, deliberate misuse of public funds, and so on".

Professor Bolaji Owasanoye has been sworn in as the new Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), seven months after forwarding his name to the National Assembly.

He was sworn in by President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday at a brief ceremony in the Council Chamber of the State House in Abuja. Also sworn in were eight other new board members for the Commission.

At the event, the President said he was “particularly delighted that the ICPC law under which you will operate is robust enough to assist government to sanitise the public sector in service delivery, public procurement, diversion of public revenue, deliberate misuse of public funds, and so on".

In his remarks, the new Chairman swore to eschew, expose and fight corruption. He also said that he was "encouraged by the unquestionable, unshakeable and unequivocal stand of Mr. President against corruption, which indicated a very strong political will to fight corruption, and therefore promised on behalf of new members that they would not disappoint the nation in their assignment".

In 2018, the Senate screened and confirmed Owasanoye and other board members, whose nominations had been pending for more than one year.

Members of the board that were sworn in alongside Owasanoye are Grace Chinda (Delta), Titus Okolo (Enugu), Obiora Igwedebia (Anambra), Justice Adamu Bello (Katsina).

Others are Olubukola Balogun (Lagos), Hannatu Muhammed (Jigawa), Abdulahi Saidu (Niger) and Yahaya Dauda (Nasarawa).

The Chairman will be in office for a tenure of five years, which is renewable only once, while the board members have a four-year tenure that is also renewable only once.

Owasanoye will be the fourth substantive ICPC Chairman since its inception and takes over from Dr. Musa Usman Abubakar, the acting Chairman, who is the Commission’s Secretary.

Topics
Corruption