The Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and Allied Offences Commission,
ICPC, Mr. Ekpo Nta, has revealed that the commission was investigating a state
governor for alleged diversion of bailout funds meant for the payment of workers’
salaries. Nta disclosed this when he received students of the National Institute for
Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, who were on a study tour to the commission in
Abuja. He said the commission would soon publish the outcome of its
investigations. According to the ICPC boss, the commission was working with
ministries, departments and agencies to prevent corruption in the system before
they manifest. He said: “Last year, 27 states got bailout funds from the Central Bank
of Nigeria, CBN. We decided to go into collaboration with the Nigerian Labour
Congress, NLC, to monitor the movement of the funds from the Central Bank of
Nigeria to the final destination. “One state, where bailout funds were moved to three
different accounts, is being investigated and we will soon publish the outcome of
our investigations.” The ICPC boss explained that the commission relied on petitions
from members of the public to investigate allegations of corruption, because it did
not have access to early financial intelligence that would have given it an edge in
identifying early cases of corrupt practices. According to him, by the law
establishing ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, it is
only the latter that has such access. This, he said, explained the seeming
prominence of the EFCC in the fight against corruption, suggesting that such early
warning signs should be shared amongst all security agencies. He said despite this
seeming disadvantage, ICPC had recorded success, especially in the area of seizure
of property that were product of corruption. Nta said: “We have done a lot of
seizures. We seized 61 houses from a staff of one organisation, whose income
could not justify such massive accumulation
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