http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/188512-‎n133-million-scam-icpc-under-fire-for-clearing-ex-police-ig-okiro-others.html




The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Commission has come under fire
over its decision to clear officials of the Police
Service Commission (PSC) caught defrauding the
government using inflated contract and bogus
claims.


The ICPC, in an August 6 report after investigations
of corrupt allegations levelled against the
Commission, revealed that Mike Okiro, former
police Inspector General and now chairman of the
police service commission, collected N350 million
to train 900 PSC staff, whereas the staff strength of
the body is 391.


The money was also meant to cover physical
monitoring of police personnel during the last
general election.
The investigation came after one Solomon Kaase, a
staff of the PSC, petitioned the ICPC last May over
alleged moves by Mr. Okiro to swindle the PSC to
the tune of N275 million.
In their investigation, the ICPC discovered that the
Mr. Okiro-led Commission held training of staff
only in Abuja whereas they were paid for trainings
in Abuja, Lagos, and Kaduna.


The PSC was also found to have paid daily
travelling allowances to all staff, including those
based in Abuja, who participated in the training
programme held within the Federal Capital Territory.
“Air tickets were paid to management staff and
others who monitored elections within Abuja and its
environs; even at locations were airports do not
exist such as Lokoja and Minna,” the ICPC report
stated.


“PSC Chairman collected money for two
conferences that ran simultaneously in Dublin and
Orlando, Florida, expending ticket fare for the
Dublin trip only. However, he had written to the
Presidency to expend the ticket fare for Abuja-
Orlando-Abuja on another trip coming up in
October, 2015.”
In its recommendations, the ICPC directed Mr. Okiro
to remit N133 million of the N350 million he
received for staff training and election monitoring
to the ICPC recovery account at First City
Monument Bank.
The ICPC also directed the PSC staff who were paid
two-way return tickets and airport taxi fares to
locations within the FCT and surrounding states
during the monitoring exercise to refund N11.75
million.
The anti-graft Commission, however, stated that
there was no act of criminal infraction against Mr.
Okiro as all the outlined issues “are administrative
in nature and within the ambits of career public
servants handling”.



Civil societies kick


The recommendations by the ICPC on the Mr.
Okiro-led Commission has generated angry
reactions from civil society groups.
Last week, the Civil Society Network Against
Corruption, a network of anti-corruption groups,
disagreed with the ICPC’s directive that the N133
million be paid into its recovery account with the
FCMB.


The group stated that the money ought to be
remitted to the Federation Account in line with the
federal government’s directive that all agencies
maintain a single account with the Central Bank of
Nigeria.


On Monday, two civil society groups, Access to
Justice and the Network on Police Reforms in
Nigeria, described the ICPC’s recommendations,
after it had found that money had been
misappropriated, as “quite unsatisfactory and
logically flawed”.


”Judging from the ICPC’s statement, it is fairly
evident that, from the start, an intention to
misappropriate funds was clearly incubated, set in
motion, and manifest when the Commission
projected to train 509 more staff than it actually
had; in other words, the Commission received
training monies for a large retinue of ‘ghost staff’,”
the groups said in a joint statement signed by
Joseph Otteh and Okechukwu Nwanguma, heads of
the respective groups.




“Those preparatory steps were subsequently
consummated: the Commission got taxpayer
monies based upon the misrepresentations it made,
and held on to the money that remained afterwards.
“As the ICPC found, the Police Service Commission
even knowingly paid its staff based in Abuja return
air ticket money for a programme that held in
Abuja, yet another fraud.



“How these corrupt practices and deceptions could
come to be characterised by the ICPC as merely
‘administrative in nature and within the ambits of
career public servants handlings’ is baffling.”
The groups recalled that in 2008, a former health
Minister and a Senator were arraigned and
prosecuted for their failure to return to the
government coffers unspent funds in their
Ministries and Committees respectively.
“The ICPC’s working definition of criminal
corruption sets our alarm bells ringing; it is clearly
too flawed and deficit to help Nigeria’s war against
corruption.

“If there were no criminal acts committed, it
becomes open to question the business of the ICPC
in ordering the PSC to refund money. The ICPC’s
mandate, it may be said, extends only to the
investigation and prosecution of acts that
constitute corrupt practices.”


Okiro’s resignation

The groups also joined the growing list of civil
societies demanding the resignation of Mr. Okiro,
the PSC boss. The ICPC report merely stated that he
refund N133 million to the government.


The PSC exercises disciplinary control over police
officers and is responsible for ensuring that police
officers comply with all police laws and regulations,
including those on corruption,” the groups said.
“Where the PSC cannot effectively perform its
oversight disciplinary responsibilities, a huge
disciplinary and control gap will be created within
the Nigerian police force, which will, consequently,
further entrench and facilitate systematic corruption
within the institution.


“The continuance of the present incumbent of the
office of the Chairman of the Police Service
Commission is, therefore, no longer tenable. It is in
the best interest of the body and for the sake of
preserving the PSC’s ability to effectively perform
its constitutional duties, that we are therefore
demanding that he vacate the office now,” the
groups said.

Yes ke!

Na wa ooo

nd d hunter becomes d hunted...

This is the reason why Sound Sultan songed One Day Bush Meat Go Catch The Hunter

Bird of the same federal
☺☺☺☺☺☺☺

Nasoo

.