Posted by By TONY ICHEKU, Abuja on
Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Emmanuel Ayoola has debunked claims by the Attorney General of the Federaton, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), that there are plans to merge the ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
* Says no such plans
Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Emmanuel Ayoola has debunked claims by the Attorney General of the Federaton, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), that there are plans to merge the ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In his reaction to the reports, the former justice of the Supreme Court said there is 'nothing like that in the thinking of the Federal Government." His response was in sharp contrast to the statement credited to Justice Minister and Attorney General, Aondoakaa, who recently said that the Federal Government was considering merging EFCC, ICPC and Code of Conduct Bureau to avoid duplication of efforts.
Justice Ayoola, however, shot the idea down and revealed that the ICPC will soon re-open the investigation of former governors alleged to have corruptly enriched themselves while in office.
According to him, the 37 files of the former governors have been recovered from the office of the Chief Justice of the Federation.
The ICPC boss had written to the office of the Chief Justice to send all the files on the investigation of the former governors to the anti-corruption agency. 'We have received the 37 case files yesterday from the office of the Chief Justice," he confirmed.
He added that a small unit would be set up to scrutinize the file and recommend whether or not the indicted governors would be prosecuted.
He explained that the ICPC suspended work on the files as section 62 of the ICPC Act barred the commission from probing serving governors, and would now re-open the investigation as most of the indicted governors had since left office.
Speaking on the interrogation of former speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Olubunmi Etteh by the commission, Justice Ayoola said the investigation is on-going and that the finding of the commission would be made public as soon as the investigation is concluded.