February 23, (THEWILL) – The recent disclosure by the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, that the commission recovered over ₦20 billion siphoned through fraudulent ghost workers’ pension schemes in 2024, sounds like a broken record.
Much as we salute Dr. Aliyu’s explanation that the ICPC uncovered the fraudulent insertion of workers in some Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, as part of its preventive activities and commend the Commission for uncovering corrupt practices regularly, we hasten to say that this is a familiar path that the Commission needs to depart from so that it would be seen to be serious.
Indeed, that the ICPC Chairman made this disclosure during the “Editors’ Breakfast Meeting with ICPC Chairman,” an interactive session organised by the ICPC for media executives in Abuja, a fortnight ago, raises the question whether the meeting was not just another media jamboree.
Why do we say so.? The answer is to be found in part of Aliyu’s address at the occasion.
“Over the years, ICPC has followed a communication strategy guided by Section 36 and Section 27(4) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000. These legal provisions safeguard suspects’ rights. While we remain firm and meticulous in our duties, we are equally committed to upholding the rule of law and human dignity,” he said and simplistically added that “the Commission is not seeking public validation but rather remains focused on delivering measurable results based on its Strategic Action Plan (2024-2028).”
Although Dr Aliyu is speaking in 2024, he sounds like his immediate predecessor, Mr Ekpo Nta. What he avoided to say was disclosed by Nta in 2015. During a scheduled visit to the Supreme Court in that year, Mr Nta noted that the Commission discovered that some commercial banks provided their platforms for pension thieves to steal billions of naira without any regard for banking regulations.
He cited one of the indicted commercial banks in the pension scam that allowed an individual to open 22 accounts with one picture, but 22 different names.
Nta said, “The banking sector is becoming much more regulated. Our investigation activities have shown that the Know Your Customer (KYC) regulation is not really being adhered to. That is why we found a pension scam where a bank has opened an account for a 22- year old whose mandate reads pensioner.
‘And we found out in the same bank that one person using one picture, has 22 accounts with different names. We are also moving against the bank. We have charged them to the courts.”
Nta who also counted some of the achievements of the Commission in the fight against corruption, told the Justices that the ICPC needed their support in matters of interpretation of the necessary laws to aid the Commission’s prosecution.
According to him, the ICPC has a very robust approach to the prevention of corruption, hence it was seeking collaboration with agencies to develop platforms to block corruption and added that the Integrated Personnel Payroll System (IPPS) has reduced the incidence of people carrying money to give to persons that are not entitled to it.
In response, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, who asked the Commission to be thorough in its investigations before sending the cases to court so as to rule out time wasting, assured My Nta that the Supreme Court was willing to support ICPC by helping to fast track all corruption cases brought before it.
Obviously, nothing significant happened on this matter, because Nta’s successor repeated the same story during his tenure. That was in 2019. Chairman of the Commission, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, then, lamented the role of some financial institutions in financial crimes, saying some of them opened accounts for criminals and provided services that helped criminal acts.
Prof Owasanoye made the statement during the visit of the management of Bank of Industry to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja that year.
The ICPC chairman had pledged the commission’s commitment to working together with financial institutions in order to rid them of corrupt elements, adding that the complicity of a few of Nigeria’s financial services industry is leading to the ruination of the country.
So, like his predecessor, is Dr Aliyu going to follow the beaten path or summon the courage to bring the abettor of this heinous criminality that continues to bleed this country of hard earned resources that ought to be deployed for providing social and economic services for the welfare of the citizenry?
We urge him to do the needful and assist the authorities in dealing a blow to financial corruption in the country.
