By Demola Akinyemi, Ilorin
The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission(ICPC) Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu SAN, has explained the reason the commission largely adopted the strategy of preventing Nigerians from committing corruption, saying that it’s because it’s less costly and more strategic.
He said this on Monday in Ilorin at the One-day ICPC Roundtable Engagement with State Attorneys General in the North Central Zone on Strengthening ICPC’s Capacity for Corruption Prevention, organised by the commission.
The ICPC Chairman who hinted that over N20 Billion was recovered last year in one of the investigations,and many properties were recovered noted that aside the fact that preventing people from committing corruption is less expensive, the fear of difficulties around litigation, and particularly the judicial system which is slow made the commission to opt for preventive strategy.
According to him,”the reason why we focus more on prevention is that one, it is more strategic,it is less costly and also help us in retaining our resources.
“If you allow the corruption to happen,it will be difficult for you to cure, especially when there are issues around litigation and we know how the judicial system in Nigeria is.
“It is too slow because of many cases, that is why we have this approach,let us prevent this thing from happening if it happens,we will now go for enforcement,that is investigation and thorough prosecution.”
Making references to assets and amount recovered from the looters recently,he said ,”I can’t give you a clear figure but i know there are a lot of money that was recovered by all the agencies.For ICPC,i could recall that last year,we had recovered over 20 billion in one of the investigations we had made and which we blocked a lot of things.
“Also,there are a lot of property which we recovered because of the issue of asset recovery which is one of the five pillars of national anti-corruption strategy and also which is key component at continental level because of our effort in this country.”
He however explained that the roundtable engagement of the ICPC and body of Attorneys-General across states of the federation was formed as a necessary tool for success, in their shared pursuit of justice and the need for the continuity and reassessment of efforts in the fight against corruption, as criminal trends evolve and national events unfold.
He said he was delighted to see the level of commitment shown by the Attorneys-General of the North-Central region towards fulfilling their undertaking from the last conference in Abuja, stressing that,”this collaboration encompasses the 1st, 4th, and 5th pillars of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2022-2026, has the potential to strengthen Nigeria’s democracy, and push the country a step closer to achieving its development goals.”
He also noted that the essence of the partnership,” is to strengthen relationship and see how we can work closely together to prevent corruption which we know is one of the major problems this country is facing.”
He also charged the attorney generals to make the best use of expertise, collaboration and coordination because of the complexities and resilience of corruption.
” Recognising the complexity and resilience of corruption, we must leverage expertise, collaboration, and coordination—principles emphasised by frameworks such as the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, the African Union Convention, and the ECOWAS Protocol. Our collective efforts must be guided by these protocols, which underscore the importance of multi-stakeholder engagement to promote transparency, accountability, and sustainable development.”he said.
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