AYOOLA FLAYS INCESSANT PROBES

The Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Crimes Commission (ICPC), Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, took a hard look at the various probes into various sectors to fight corruption as nothing short of giving Nigeria negative perception.

So far, he said nothing had come out of these probes rather than sending to the world negative perception that Nigeria continued to wallow in corruption.

Justice Ayoola said too much money went into these probes that kept attracting negative perception 'because everything that is disclosed has gone on international media and because it has been fed and spread abroad through Internet and printed by foreign journals, without the nation showing any effort to deal with the information gathered; the nation will continue to go down in perception index.'

Justice Ayoola disclosed this in Abuja while receiving a petition from the members of the committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR).

He said the poor perception index was not through the lack of effort for anti-corruption agencies, but through negative reports that were not countered by positive things to show that we are doing something about them. 'That is why our perception has gone down terribly.'

Justice Ayoola said Nigerians should begin to walk the talk. 'Nigerians should be able to add action to rhetoric.'

He said the ICPC had created a platform to back up rhetoric with action by asking civil society to donate consultants who would devote their time and skills to analyze some of the petitions 'at our disposal.'