ICPC Moves to Recover N5.3tn Borrowed Funds – TheNigerialawyer

* Alleges politicians use MDAs for constituency projects
scam Text Box: *Police ask public to video-record corrupt personnel
Text Box:*Rwanda, South Africa haven for looters, says Magu
Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt and other related
Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, has said the
commission was collaborating with the other anti-corruption
agencies to recover N5.3 trillion that some individuals borrowed
but could not pay back and were waiting for the Asset Management
Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to redeem.

Owasanoye issued this this threat yesterday at the 17th edition
of the Special Town Hall Meeting on the fight against corruption,
organised in Abuja by the Ministry of Information and Culture
headed by Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

He said public funds were made available to cover up so that the
institutions in whose name the funds were borrowed would not
collapse.

“Some people took the money and smiled to the bank, enjoying
themselves in the system and can pay back and simply waiting for
government to fund AMCON. The money is in the pocket of some people
and we are going to recover it. It must be paid somehow. If we
don’t succeed, it is the unearned income of many of us sitting here
that will be used to cover it,” Owasanoye said.

He also riled some officials in the Ministries Departments and
Agencies (MDAs), saying they were used to perpetrate community
projects scam by some sponsors of community projects.

ICPC, which alleged that it tracked down some bogus projects in
the pilot scheme it carried out in the education and health sectors
some months ago, vowed that it will also target the MDAs in the
second phase.

According to the ICPC chairman, many MDAs with low capacity,
were saddled with responsibility to supervise constituency projects
of over N1 billion when their own budget was less than N10
millions.

“In one ministry, for example, about 59 officials, within a
month, took N3 billion. We arrested all of them. They were in our
office for some time and their accounts blocked,” he said.

He lamented that as a rule, not more that N250, 000 was supposed
to be paid into the account of a public official, but wondered that
there were instances, where level 8 and 9 officials were having
N250 milion paid into their account purposely for the projects of
the ministry which could not be traced.

Owasanoye also accused some politicians and community leaders of
conspiring to divert money meant for the poor and vulnerable people
under the social intervention programme.

He said they have made some arrests in connection with the
scam.

Similarly he alleged that over N9 billion that was hanging in
some of the universities that were not on the payroll was recently
discovered. He said the scam was an indictment on the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASSU) for resisting the move to be put
on the IPPIS.

Also speaking at the meeting, Acting Chairman, Eco, Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu, said that the
agency had recorded 890 convictions between January and November.
He said EFCC had also agreed to make presentation before the body
of African heads of states next year.

Magu said fraudsters and looters were now migrating to Rwanda,
South and Dubai, as their loots could no longer be laundered in
Europe.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Logistics and
Supply of Nigeria Police, Aminchi Baraya, caused a stir, when he
said the members of the public can secretly record and upload on
social media video of police officers they catch demanding for
bribes at check points.

Baraya, who represented the IG of Police, Mohammed Adamu,
advised the public to be discreet about the act.

The Chairman Code of Conduct Bureau, Muhammed Isah, said the
Bureau had successfully prosecuted over 75 of the 160 cases filed
before the Code of Conduct Tribunal in the past four years, while
100 cases were still pending.

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