The Federal Government has removed the acting Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr. Uriah Angulu, following the probe of an alleged N6billion fraud in the National Judicial Institute (NJI) and trial of a minister.

A commissioner in the agency, retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Abang Rosemary Wushishi was asked to take over from Angulu.

Investigation by The Nation indicated that Angulu was asked to proceed on terminal leave based on a letter from the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN).

The March 12 letter, followed a purported directive to the Minister by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Angulu’s removal caught most (ICPC) officials unawares because he was expected to complete his tenure of two terms in office as a commissioner in July.

A top source said: “Ideally, even if anyone has to go on terminal leave, it should not be more than three months. And normally, the retiree used to serve statutory notice, not the government compelling it.

“We were all shocked by the speed with which the government hurriedly asked Angulu to vacate office.

“Even it was at the sudden handover on Tuesday that Angulu read his letter of compulsory terminal leave to the management of ICPC.

“The development cast a pall of gloom on the commission because Angulu’s removal was more than meets the eye.”

It was, however, gathered that the removal of Angulu was in connection with the presidency’s uncomfortable posture with the ‘recent combative anti-corruption drive of ICPC.’

Another highly-placed source in ICPC said: “Twice now, the government has expressed reservations about the activities of this commission.

“The manner in which ICPC charged Minister of State for Health, Suleiman Bello to court, for alleged corrupt enrichment of about N11.2million, was considered embarrassing to the Presidency.

“Although the AGF demanded the case file of Bello from ICPC, the row over exercise of the AGF’s powers in Section 174(1) (b) of the 1999 Constitution, created image crisis for the government.

“The ICPC management also insisted in pursuing the case to its logical conclusion.

“Also, the ongoing investigation of alleged N6billion fraud in the NJI, whose Governing Council is headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, further strained the relationship between ICPC and the government.

“There has been pressure to halt the probe but ICPC and the CJN had to exchange hot correspondences on the matter.

“I think the government did not find Angulu amenable and decided to ask him to proceed on terminal leave.”

As at press time, top officials and workers of the NJI were celebrating Angulu’s removal.

“Have you heard what happened to the acting Chairman of ICPC? We warned him but he was adamant. Let him go on leave and continue with the probe,” the joyous source added.

http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/paperfrmes.html
(check the Nation)

Vote Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for Aluta Continua! 


Or what message is The Presidency trying to send to the average Nigerian??

Ha ha ha . Jonathan aiding and abetting corruption ? What else is new ? As some of us continue to argue , wretched and blatant crooks do not all line up behind GEJ and "endorse" him for nothing . It is Nigeria that will pay the price if GEJ gets 4 more years to help his pals complete the job of destroying Nigeria. These crooks will now settle down and loot properly becuase they know GEJ is in place to ensure that punishment is impossible. Adoke and Waziri will simply tear up any petition recieved against pals of GEJ.

“The development cast a pall of gloom on the commission because Angulu’s removal was more than meets the eye.”

It was, however, gathered that the removal of Angulu was in connection with the presidency’s uncomfortable posture with the ‘recent combative anti-corruption drive of ICPC.’

By no means you tamper with the Messiah's pals else, you get the boot.

solihu:

By no means you tamper with the Messiah's pals else, you get the boot.

Indeed. Jonathan is already far worse than Yar Adua IMO. the full story:

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/attempts-quash-investigations-n6-billion-fraud-scandal-national-judicial-institute-cjn-kat

Attempts To Quash Investigations Into N6 Billion Fraud Scandal At National Judicial Institute By CJN Katsina-Alu
Posted: March 23, 2011 - 00:01
Posted by siteadmin


The impunity enjoyed by the controversial Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Aloysius Iyorgher Katsina-Alu, took a new turn today (Tuesday, 22 March) when he got President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Bello Adokie, to fire the Acting Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Crimes Commission (ICPC), Ambassador (Dr.) Uriah Angulu.

The letter to the CJN that got Ambassador Angulu fired Top placed sources within the Justice Ministry in Abuja and Aso Rock Presidential Villa told Saharareporters this evening that the ouster of the acting chairman of the ICPC was primarily due to his decision to investigate a N6 billon scandal at the National Judicial Institute (NJI) where the CJN is the Chairman of the Governing Council. CJN Katsina-Alu and the administrator of the NJI, retired Justice Umaru Eri, are both allegedly implicated in the N6 billion fraud. Ambassador Angulu, who has been acting as the Chairman of the ICPC since the lackluster end of the term of Justice Emmanuel Ayoola in November 2010, handed over late this afternoon in Abuja, Nigeria, to Dr. Rosemary Abang-Wushishi, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) and member of the ICPC Board, described by a source at the ICPC as an ‘inept, physically and mentally tired woman who resumes work around two in the afternoon.’

Saharareporters learnt that [b]since Ambassador Angulu, a former Consul General of Nigeria in New York, between 1981 and 1984, took over at the ICPC, he has tried to revive the commission which has “become inept and ineffective under Justice Ayoola.” Angulu’s “chief crime” was said to be his total refusal to do any deals on subsisting cases, investigations and petitions. When he ordered investigations into the alleged N6 billion fraud involving the CJN and the Administrator of the NJI, Justice Katsina-Alu wrote a letter of invitation to him for discussions. But Angulu fired back to the CJN that the ICPC was not under the CJN and that, as a target of ICPC’s investigations, the CJN could not invite him to his office. Rather, the former Ahmadu Bello University don insisted, if the CJN wanted to see him, he could visit him (Angulu) in his office at the ICPC Headquarters.

Our sources said that Justice Katsina-Alu saw this not only as “an insult”, but more importantly, felt that Angulu’s “effrontery” and “inflexibility” may spell disaster for him and his allies, given the on-going controversy started by his effort to remove the President of the Federal Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami, from office through “promotion” to the Supreme Court. If Angulu was allowed to go ahead with his investigations and got the media’s attention, the CJN argued, his credibility may be totally destroyed before his retirement in a few months.

Justice Katsina-Alu therefore called the attention of the Justice Minister, Bello Adokie, - whom he nominated in replacement of his disgraced predecessor, Michael Aondoakaa - to the “brewing scandal.” Adokie was said to have quickly contacted President Jonathan, who is said to be enjoying a “cosy relationship” with the CJN. Adokie, our sources revealed, brought Jonathan’s attention to the implications of allowing the Ambassador Angulu “to rubbish” the CJN over the N6 billion fraud allegation. If the CJN was forced to resign “in ignominy,” Adokie told Jonathan, it would mean that the President and his party may no longer be able to “kick out Justice Salami” from the Appeal Court. All of these would have “dire consequences” for the fate of the president and his party in the aftermath of the coming elections. This is even very crucial, our sources hinted, given the predicted likelihood of a run-off in the coming presidential elections and the likelihood of a judicial contest of the results of the elections.[/b]

Jonathan saw the “danger” to his ambition and the fortune of his party and immediately ordered the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to work with the AGF to ask the acting Chairman of the ICPC, Ambassador Angulu, to proceed on terminal leave immediately and hand over to Abang-Wushishi. Abang-Wushishi, like Mrs. Farida Waziri, also a retired AIG, is expected to stop the cases against the president’s men, once she assumed office.

Apart from Katsina-Alu, Jonathan’s Minister of Health, Alhaji Suleiman Bello, has also been put on trial by the ICPC under Ambassador Angulu, for alleged fraud. Bello was a senior official of INEC in many states before he became the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa State during the last elections. In spite of having been an umpire in the elections, Bello was then appointed as a federal minister by one of the competitors, the PDP. However, recently, Bello was put to trial by the ICPC for allegedly illegally receiving the sum of N11.2 million as “hardship allowance” from the governor of the state, Admiral Murtala Nyako (ret.), in 2007. He was said to have collected other sums from the governor after this.

All attempts to persuade the acting chairman of the ICPC, Angulu, to drop the charges or discontinue the trial by the Attorney General and the PDP fell on deaf ears. When all else failed, Attorney-General Adokie, like Michael Aondoakaa before him, took over the case in Yola High Court from the ICPC, in exercising the powers conferred on him by Section 174 sub section 1 (b) of the Constitution. In seeking to protect the accused Minister of Health, who has refused to resign despite his trial, Adokie ignored Section 174, sub-section 3 of the 1999 Constitution which states that "In exercising his powers under this section, the Attorney General of the Federation shall have regard to the public interest, the interest of justice and the need to prevent abuse of legal process."
A source at the ICPC stated that Adokie has ordered his lawyers to enter a nolle prosequi (“will not prosecute”) in the case against Health Minister Suleiman Bello soon. The source added, “I don’t know where they recruit these AGFs from, since the time of Abacha. It is as if the law profession has a special pool of SANs who have no regard for their names and for public interest. I tell you, this Adokie guy would end up in worse ignominy than the infamous Aondoakaa. He seems worse. And to think that President Jonathan is also mouthing the rule of law like Yar’Adua was doing as his Justice Minister is violating that rule right, left and centre.”


Saharareporters learnt that what led to the “broken dam” of information on the fraud at the NJI was most probably the sack of 34 southerners by Justice Umaru Eri recently. The 34 were allegedly replaced by 34 persons of northern origin. This crisis was said to have led to a series of leakages of facts and documents in relation to the alleged fraud. Some of those who were sacked were said to have also petitioned the ICPC on their sack, alleging that corruption was involved in the process.

Ambassador Angulu, who is from Kataegeri, near Bida, Niger State, was said to have insisted that if Nigerians from any part of the country were aggrieved about their loss of employment and alleged that corruption was involved, no efforts must be spared to investigate these allegation. Sources said all efforts to appeal to “northern sentiments” on the part of the CJN and the CJI Administrator, Justice Eri, proved abortive with Angulu.

“When Angulu moved from that issue to the substantive issue of the N6 billion fraud, it was clear to these people that this is another ‘Nuhu Ribadu’ in the making. So, they decided to stop him quickly before he causes a major havoc. Can you imagine the Chief Justice of the Federation being arraigned in court for fraud? It would have been more sensational than Ribadu’s arraignment of his boss, the IGP Tafa Balogun, with handcuffs on his hands” said a source at the Commission.

It will be recalled that there have been calls for the CJN’s resignation over the accusations levelled against him by Justice Salami. Justice Salami alleged that Justice Katsina-Alu, asked him to compromise himself over the petition on the 2007 gubernatorial election in Sokoto State. As if in response, Justice Salami himself was accused of compromising himself in the election petition cases in Osun and Ekiti States, which led to the upturning of the “electoral robbery” of the ruling PDP in the two states.  The National Judicial Council (NJC) is currently looking into the two cases. It has been rumoured that President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP will ensure that, at the end of the “ruse”, Justice Salami is forced out of the Appeal Court, “in readiness for the party’s plan to rig” the April 2011 elections and ensure that there would be no judicial reversals of his “electoral robberies.”

In May 2010 at an anti-corruption sensitization programme for staff of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs in Abuja, as a member of the ICPC board, Ambassador Angulu, said it was regrettable that government was continually criticized for failing in its obligations to the citizenry. He added, “I say that this is the collective failure of the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs of government which are charged with putting effect to government policies and initiatives. They have failed because of a lack of transformational approach to and sense of moral responsibility in the execution of their mandates. To address this situation, the ICPC is reviewing the template for Anti-Corruption and Transparency Monitoring Unit (ACTU), for obligations in the MDAs in a manner that will reposition the units as agents of transformation.”

A source at the ICPC told Saharareporters today that “the man (Angulu) will be missed at the ICPC because he was beginning to give a sense of direction to the commission after the years in which Justice Ayoola just sat back and merely enjoyed his office while travelling around the world and raking up high bills for the Commission. Go and check the records. What case was ever competently prosecuted under Justice Ayoola? All the case files of the twenty-plus governors gathered dust under his leadership. Now, they have removed the man who would have provided a good template for the new chairman to take over.”

gejfraud********************************

I am simply short of words to say.

Would there ever be an end to this malady or brazen display of corruption. I am tired of seeing the same thing over and over again.

God we need a bloody revolution in Nigeria.

this is when the naija peeps should go on mass demonstration asking the FG for the reverse of their decision.

I lost total confidence in gej after delta guber re-run when he came 2 days to election to publicly tell all deltans dat he had come to take uduaghan (unelected gov) back to govt house. And he succeeded even when it was obvious dat pdp lost de re-run wit a wide margin. As i speak wit u majority of us deltans are not his supporters because of dat dubious act. Gej lack credibility. Buhari is de only 1 dat can save us from dis mess. Buhari 2011