Abuja – Mr Ekpo Nta, the Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related offences Commission (ICPC), has assured the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption that the commission was committed to corruption prevention.
Mrs. Rasheedat Okoduwa, the spokesperson of the ICPC in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, said Nta gave the assurance when he received members of the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-corruption.
The statement said Nta told the committee that corruption prevention was the thrust of the activities of the ICPC in line with the objective of its mandate.
It said Nta had defined corruption as an “Opportunistic crime since people tend to abuse opportunities which then lead them to engage in corruption”.
The statement said the ICPC boss had advocated for the elimination of opportunities that predispose people to engaging in corrupt acts.
“ICPC is interested in the development and deployment of high Information and communication technology (ICT) in government processes to achieve success with greater ease.
“This will be the height of our prevention activities,” the ICPC said.
Nta further told the lawmakers that the various preventive initiatives of the commission had saved the Federal Government a lot of money.
“Some of the sectors that have benefitted from these initiatives include the Nigerian Ports Authority, Aviation and Education sectors.
“We need realistic funding for the war against corruption as corrupt persons are well off financially to fight back.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Akinloye Babajide, said the essence of the visit was to acquire better knowledge of the activities of the ICPC and to offer support, where necessary.
He commended the commission for fostering a good image for Nigeria through its preventive initiatives.
The committee chairman urged the ICPC management to intensify efforts in making its achievements public, adding that the mindset of people was that the commission was not doing much.
“The perception of ICPC that it is not doing enough should be a thing of the past.
“With what I have seen, we want to contribute to the development of the commission and eradicate wrong perceptions of ICPC.”
The oversight visit also witnessed the inspection of 95 Federal Government vehicles seized by ICPC from various government officials.
The vehicles were seized after the winding down of the activities of the defunct Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (Sure-P) by the current administration.
