Chairman of the ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye
Ex-military chief stole N4bn – ICPC, says corruption in public sector fueling insecurity
Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has disclosed that former top officer in the Nigerian military stole N4bn from the Force’s budget and deposited it into the accounts of two companies purportedly belonging to him.
Chairman of the ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, made the disclosure while presenting a paper at an event tagged; ‘National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Insecurity in Nigeria’, at the ICPC headquarters in Abuja, Friday.
According to Prof. Owasanoye, the unnamed ex-officer used proceeds from the stolen funds to purchase properties in Abuja in the names of his cronies and proxies of the military chief, adding that some of the properties paid for by the military were also fraudulently converted to his personal use.
The ICPC chief further submitted that research and investigations by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the ICPC on the issue of insecurity had shown that public sector corruption directly and indirectly enabled insecurity and could sometimes complement it.
“ICPC’s prosecution of this high ranking officer to recover all the implicated assets was strangely and perversely frustrated by a recently retired High Court judge who decided to forfeit some of the assets to FGN and the rest left to the suspect.
While the commission has filed a notice of appeal, this strange development aggravates an already bad situation and escalates insecurity and impunity.”
He noted that cases of job racketeering abound in the security sector, disclosing that many of them were under investigation by the ICPC.
Owasanoye said corruption was a major contributory factor to the continued existence and propagation of insecurity in the country.
The ICPC boss lamented Nigeria’s worsening insecurity challenges, noting that the resulting impact on her economy and image had continued to be cause of concern to Nigerians, including the leaders in the three arms of government and anti-corruption practitioners.
“Another case under investigation is theft of part of special intervention fund approved for security operations by some civil servants in the line ministry who transferred about N1bn to four Shell companies.
“A special investigative team under the leadership of NSA and ICPC recovered some of the diverted assets, including state of the art building located in Abuja and over N220m cash. Investigation on this matter is still ongoing.
“In fact, a clinical diagnosis of the insecurity menace in the country reveals that to effectively combat insecurity, we require the collaborative efforts of security agencies (the military, intelligence, police, customs, Prisons, others), as well as law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies.
“There are also ongoing investigations into military contracts spending. Recently, ICPC arrested a military contractor that received over a period of less than 10 years cumulative sum of about N6bn from the Nigerian Army in suspicious circumstances and in violation of extant legislation.
“The commission’s recovery of huge cash sums in local and foreign currencies, luxury cars, customised mobile phones, designer watches, including three Rolexes, as well as, property documents from the premises of the contractor, underscore the corruption that often attend military procurement.”
