ICPC Chairman, Ekpo Nta
The Chairman, Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Mr. Ekpo Nta, on
Thursday, said a Federal Pay Officer who allegedly diverted N103m meant
for three Federal Government colleges had been selling off his
properties to pay back the loot.
The ICPC Chairman said while the
commission had recovered N53m from the suspect, he would remain in the
commission’s custody till the recovery of the balance.
Nta said this at the 2nd Annual
Colloquium organised by the law office of Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, a
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, in Abuja on Wednesday, according to an email
sent by the Resident Consultant, ICPC, Mr. Folu Olamiti, to SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday.
The
ICPC boss said the commission had recorded successes in the fight
against corruption, starting with the recovery of assets seized from
officials of government who he said were being investigated for living
above their means.
He said although the law provided that
anyone whose assets were seized had the right to challenge the seizure
within one year. He stressed that nobody had attempted doing so to prove
his innocence.
Nta said, “We just returned close to N1bn to the Federal Ministry of Environment and N53m to three colleges in Ogun State.
“An official in the ministry took the
money and lodged it into a dedicated account. We tracked it and
recovered the money. The N53m we just returned to the schools was
recovered from a Federal Pay Officer in Ogun State.
“The man is currently in custody and we
will keep him there so that we will be able to recover the entire N103m
that he took. He has been disposing of his properties to ensure that he
pays up.
“The sum of N103m taken by the Federal
Pay Officer was meant for feeding of students in those schools. These
are what we have been doing to return integrity to the society.”
The ICPC boss had handed over the sum of
N924m diverted from the account of the Federal Ministry of Environment
to the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mrs. Nana Nebe, at the
commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.
Same day, Nta also handed over the sum
of N56.2m to three Federal Government Colleges – the Federal Government
College, Odogbolu; Federal Government Girls College, Sagamu; and Federal
Science Technical College, Ijebu Mushin.
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