Rt. Hon. Dimeji Bankole , Speaker of the House of Representatives has described the statement credited to Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Chairman, Emmanuel Ayoola as laughable as he denied that the leadership of the House has any hand in the inability of the anti-graft agencies to prosecute persons indicted by the report of the $16 billion power probe.
Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, the Cross River State governor, Liyel Imoke and former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Agagu were amongst those indicted by the probe
Hon. Bankole made this known in Abuja when members of civil rights groups paid him a courtesy call said the report has since been forwarded to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to prosecute them, adding that it is misleading to claim otherwise.
The groups, which include the Committee for Defence of Human Rights, representatives of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) Ikeja Branch, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), Centre for the Rule of Law, and the National Association of Democratic Lawyers were led by Mr. Supo Ojo, the President of Committee for the Defence of Human Rights.
The Speaker described the statement by the ICPC chairman, Emmanuel Ayoola, that the report was not with the agency as laughable and surprising.
"If anyone says he/she does not have the documents, I am surprised. I assure you that no one needs any special permission from me to access the documents, these are public documents available for anybody interested in having them," he said.
Mr Ojo had told the Speaker that civil society organisations in the country were worried that cases of corruption in Nigeria were being swept under the carpet because the agencies saddled with the task of prosecuting them did not have the political will to do so.
He said that it would amount to grave injustice if tax payers money expended on organizing public hearings as well as travelling round the country verifying the authenticity of contracts carried out on the power projects under the Obasanjo administration, were allowed to be wasted.
Mr Ojo revealed that the societies had already approached ICPC and EFCC to demand for the prosecution of indicted persons but were told the House was yet to make available copies of the report to them to enable them do their job.
"Having waited for over two years after submission of the reports, and despite shocking revelations that billions of dollars and trillions of naira in hard-earned revenue belonging to the Nigerian people ended up in the pockets of public officers, politicians and civil servants, we became worried that no concrete action is being taken to implement the recommendations of the House, that appropriate anti-corruption agencies further investigate and probe those suspected to be responsible and recover funds," Mr Ojo said.

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;d ;d

There they go continually shoving Nigerians back & forth.

ziddy:

There they go continually shoving Nigerians back & forth.

But Bankole is right.
ICPC and EFCC should stop waiting for go aheads.
They can investigate and prosecute.