JUDICIAL SYSTEM CRIPPLING ANTI-GRAFT FIGHT, SAYS ICPC BOSS

ACTING Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Alhaji Bako Abdullahi, has asserted that Nigeria's criminal justice system continues to impede the fight against corruption.

At the inauguration of the Edo State chapter of the National Anti-Corruption Volunteer Corp (NAVC) in Benin yesterday, Abdullahi lamented that incessant injunctions and adjournments were responsible for ineffective adjudication of graft cases.

Represented by NAVC National Coordinator, Folu Olamiti, the ICPC boss said corruption adversely affects most Nigerians and stressed the need to honestly and effectively deal with the menace.

'I want to inform you that the commission is positioned to strengthen the preventive mandate through the conduct of the system study and review of the federal ministries, departments and agencies, which made ICPC recovered about N13 billion unspent budgetary allocation.'

He said NAVC had afforded Nigerians the opportunity to participate in the fight against corruption while calling on the Edo State chapter to ensure it works within the legal framework and ensure that members do not abuse the privileges the voluntary service confer on them.

Abdulahhi said the members of the corps were not allowed to arrest, investigate or prosecute anybody but could only monitor integrity from the public by participating in national assignments, employing a mix of enlightenment and whistle blowing activities for the mass mobilisation of the people against corruption.

In his address, the state's NAVC Coordinator, Peter Osazuwa Ojo, said corruption was responsible for the present prostrate state of infrastructure and the collapse of value system while morality, efficiency and hard work was sacrificed on the altar of mediocrity, inefficiency, bribery and corruption.