A United States of America-based group, Towards A Corrupt-Free Nigeria, has joined issues with the recent activities of the anti-graft agencies in Nigeria.
This was as the group called on the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission to remain apolitical in dispatching its duty as one of the remaining pillars of the anti-corruption battle.
The group warned that the ICPC should not allow itself to become a political tool to be used by politicians to achieve nefarious aims.
This was contained in a statement released in Washington DC, the headquarters of the group, and signed by the National Coordinator, Abimbola Mohammed; National Secretary, Angus Briggs; and National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Chinyere Momah.
The media statement pointed attention to the recent ICPC public declaration as having political over and under tones.
It said: “There is need to be concerned about the recent cases that the ICPC has taken on because it will be suicidal to allow another anti-corruption agency to go the way of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
“We have already lost the EFCC to political machinations and godfathers.
“We don’t want the ICPC to follow suit.”
The group, which draws membership from all the geopolitical zones of Nigeria resident in the United States, has been registered as a non-governmental organisation tasked with ensuring a corrupt free country suitable for investors and would-be holiday makers and/or tourists to find Nigeria a suitable destination.
Angus Briggs, the National Secretary, who is a medical practitioner and a business owner in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America, expressed concern over the worsening effort to combat the menace of corrupt practices.
Briggs stated: “The recent public announcement by the ICPC that it has seized a landed property belonging to Governor Bala Mohammed was a bad sign the ICPC has become a political tool just like the EFCC.
“It is sad to know that the ICPC made such a sensitive statement without first obtaining a court ruling on the said property.”
Briggs queried why the ICPC could not wait to get the courts to rule on the property before proceeding with the announcement.
Briggs said: “Would it be that all the ICPC wanted to achieve was mere political noise?”
This is as the Chairman of ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, recently stated that the “fight against corruption in Nigeria has gone a notch or two higher with increase in sanction against politically exposed persons; conscious effort at preventing the menace; and robust assets tracing and recovery measures”.