The House of Representatives has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to retool his strategy against the fight against corruptionin the country noting that the strategy and modus operandi of the fight is archaic and worrisome to the citizenry.
At the House Ad-Hoc Committee investigation into the modus operandi of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel (SPIP) for the Recovery of Public Property, the lawmakers came hard on the Presidential panel on the way and manner they have been carrying out their duties without appropriation from the legislature.
Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee Hon. Ahman Pategi told a Director Mr Emmanuel Akisa who represented the Secretary to the Government of the Federation that the OSGF that he should bring it into the ear of the President that the panel is going against the dictates of the law.
He said that the Committee is worried that existence of the agency had gone against the laws that established the other anti-corruption agencies like the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). He expressed displeasure that the Chairman of the Presidential panel Chief Okoi, Obono Obla who was invited twice to the public hearing by the Committee did not find it expedient to honour the invitation by the parliament.
The lawmaker frowned at a letter written by the Chairman of the Presidential panel asking for a shift of the probe panel sitting to Thursday April 26 2018 as he had travelled to Warri Delta State for an official assignment. They queried the legal status of the existence of the agency as against constitutionally created anti-graft agencies of government and submitted that the existence of the Presidential panel is not necessary.
A member of the Committee Hon. Toby Okechukwu during the investigative committee sitting said that the establishment of the panel by the Presidency is already overtaken by the existence of the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB). But the OSGF’s representative Mr Akisa told the lawmakers that the Presidential panel is a special one that has the mandate of the President to cure an existing defect.
He informed the probe panel that what the OSGF’s office did was to submit to the committee all the requested documents from the office. On why the agency had been working without appropriation by the legislature despite paying allowances too its members, he said that the constitution and working of the panel was not captured in the 2017 budget of the Presidency.
Other anti-corruption agencies as the ICPC and CCB that made appearance at the probe panel said that the Presidential panel should be cautioned against abuse of fundamental human rights. The Committee Chairman Hon. Pategi later adjourned the public heqring to Thursday April 26, 2018 and appealed to all the invited persons to appear before it.
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