CALEB AYANSINA
ABUJA – Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has threatened to evoke law against individuals or groups who petition the commission based on falsehood.
The Chairman of ICPC, Barrister Ekpo Nta reminded authors of malicious and frivolous petitions that they might be subjected to Section 64, sub section 3 of the ICPC Act and that if they are convicted they will be jailed for ten years.
According to him, the Act states that “any person who gives the information referred to in sub-section (1) knowing the information to be false shall be guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years and shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding N100,000.00.”
Nta stated this when he received the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Mallam Muntaka Dama, who led the management and the Anti-Corruption and Transparent Units (ACTU) of the agency on a courtesy in Abuja.
The Executive Secretary had earlier lamented the problems associated with frivolous petitions in the public service and requested the ICPC to assist the PTDF audit its procedures and processes with a view of correcting any noticeable lapses in its way and manner of operations.
The ICPC Chairman agreed with the views of the Executive Secretary about the destabilising effect of incessant invitation of busy Chief Executives and staff of government departments to Anti-graft Agencies as a result of numerous petitions.
Several man-hours, he said were often wasted in the course of coming to answer questions and it might take several months to investigate a petition.
” At the end of the day, it is most demoralising to all parties when you discover that the petition was sent with malicious intent. It cost a lot of money to carry out investigations and people travel a lot risking their lives for something you know is not true”, Nta declared.
However, ICPC Boss regarded ACTU in the various Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as “Ethics and Compliance officers” in the organisations, who he said should not be subjected to punitive actions of not being promoted or other subtle threats simply because they were regarded as “whistle blowers.”
Nta added that since most of the petitions were generated in-house from those organisations, the various ACTUs must be more alert to their monitoring roles to check and prevent acts of corruption.
This according to him, would reduce wastage of public funds and allow investigators concentrate on more serious assignments.
