ICPC spokesperson, Rasheedat Okoduwa, announced this at a media briefing on the activities of the commission in the last one year.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission has said that the former Chairman of the Special Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, Okoi Obono-Obla, is still wanted by the commission.
ICPC spokesperson, Rasheedat Okoduwa, announced this at a media briefing on the activities of the commission in the last one year.
She said, “Yes, we have read in the media about his being available in the country, that he is making statements on social media platforms.
“We have also made statements to the effect that he should come out from hiding and present himself to ICPC. That is the only way he can clear his name, the only way to move forward.
“We have also heard from media sources how he has been calling ICPC names, saying that commission is in rivalry with his office, and a lot more. That is a lot of hogwash. I have had people call me to say: what do you have to respond to Obono-Obla, saying your chairman is a rival to him? It is hogwash.
“The decent thing is for the gentleman to come to ICPC to clear his name. We are giving him an opportunity to clear his name. After all, you are presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
She also said the commission recovered over N77.04bn assets in one year.
She added, “In the last one year, we have recovered over N77.04bn assets, including N1.16bn in Treasury Single Account (TSA); immovable assets worth N32.038bn and about N41.98bn restrained after the review of MDAs Personnel Cost Expenditure.
“Others were recoveries from project tracking (N0.767bn) and N1.097bn, being the value of constituency projects completed after we forced contractors to sites.
“ICPC has also received 1,934 petitions and concluded investigations on 580 cases. All petitions were duly registered and captured. Quite a good number of the petitions were not within ICPC jurisdiction because they bordered on some issues, like pensions, estate, economic and financial crimes.
“Several of those petitions have been forwarded to the relevant agencies. After those concluded investigations, 83 cases were filed in court. We had 25 convictions in 2019 but some of them were carried over cases.
“ICPC is not shy about naming and shaming of those suspected of corrupt practices but we have to work within the ambit of the law.
“We have named certain corrupt persons when we have reasons to go to court. We are not shy of exposing those who engage in corrupt practices; we only follow the law.
“Our ultimate goal in this anti-corruption war is about the betterment of the people. We believe that the anti-corruption campaign should not happen in a vacuum; it should increase development; it should increase growth. It shouldn’t be about how many people you have thrown into prison.
“Since the bottom line is allowing people to derive benefits from anti-corruption measures/ investigations, if we embroil ourselves in cases, it may take years for people to reap from what we may recover from corrupt elements.”