We can’t investigate without petitions – ICPC

The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, has said it cannot investigate private individuals, unless prompted by petitions. Reacting to a recent report, which quoted a former foreign affairs minister, Bolaji Akinyemi, as saying that most Nigerian billionaires were corrupt, the spokesman of the ICPC, Mr. Folu Olamiti, said mere verbal protests were not sufficient to send the anti-corruption agency after billionaires.

Olamiti said the Act that established ICPC did not permit the commission to investigate private individuals except there were petitions against them.

He said, “Our Act won’t permit such a thing. How can you go after private people? We cannot do that unless we have a petition that is when we can go in and investigate.

“Even at that, ICPC is focused on public officials and at times when there are infractions by private individuals that borders on the welfare of the people and the government; that is when you find anti-corruption agencies going in.”

Olamiti urged Nigerians to be patient and allow ICPC to finish the system review going on in all sectors of the country.

He said,“We are gradually getting there. We need to be patient. Nigerians are too impatient in some cases, because we believe that anything that happens, we must keep on shouting, about it. If people understand what ICPC is doing now, like this ongoing system review, they would know that we are gradually winning the war.

Meanwhile, Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, Mr. Ekpo Nta, has said the University of Ibadan and the University of Benin are set to introduce courses on corruption.

A statement by Olamiti, said the institutions were prompted by the ICPC.

Nta, who spoke after a 10-week training programme on Corruption Risk Assessment in Calabar, Cross River State, described corruption as the number one problem facing Nigeria, which had contributed to her stunted growth and bad international image.

The ICPC boss said resource persons and lecturers drawn from Nigeria and international organisations would be deployed in the varsities to teach the course, once the curriculum is developed and approved.TK's Blog | Free Forex Signals | Infotech Arena Tech News |