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Tribute To Justice Mustapha Akanbi

Exit of Mr. Integrity

The late jurist would go down in history as the pioneer chairman of ICPC who gave his all to give the Commission a strong foundation, gaining strength without the noise often associated with efforts at fighting corruption.


BY TAIWO FAROTIMI

He was a colossus in the judiciary. Colleagues on the bench, members of the bar and scores of others referred him. He had a reputation for looking at issues on their merit, never one to be swayed by sentiments or pecuniary gains. In fact, if there was anything he did not witness before his demise Sunday June 3, 2018 it is the cleaning up of the judiciary.

Justice Mustapha Adebayo Akanbi, who retired over two decades ago as president of the court of appeal was a man of principle.

He was the first chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC.
He lamented the growing corruption in the judiciary and complained over the attitude of the relevant arm of government to fast track prosecution of those indicted by the Commission.
Justice Akanbi fought corruption without playing to the gallery. When his Commission was on a case you would not read in the media about it. He hated sensation and would decline comments from the media should a reporter get wind of cases under investigation and sought his comments.
Even when he had concluded investigations, Justice Akanbi believed that the indicted was either taken to court or his case referred to the office of the attorney general, as provided by law for further investigation, than for his commission to go public. He was thorough and applied the law as strictly as possible.

He abhorred corruption and would have stayed longer than he was at the ICPC, if he wanted to. After all even the authorities were too glad to show case Mr. Integrity as the man at the helm of affairs at the Commission. But the man, frank to a fault, was not one to be exploited for any purpose. He was only glad to have set the Commission up for the big task and felt some other persons should take the baton from him. The glamour likely associated with that kind of office was never an attraction to somebody of his caliber. Those who have worked with him, and perhaps have come to know him even from a distance know that he was never enamoured by whatever perks were attached to the office of chair of the Commission or any public institution body for that matter.

If he had a choice, he would not approve of any large crowd at his internment in Ilorin, Sunday evening. But his reputation , his characteristic disposition to build or help fellow human beings cleared the way for scores of admirers to the capital of Kwara State in his honour.
Justice Akanbi was born in September 1932. He was called to the English bar in 1963 and the Nigerian bar in January 1964. He joined the ministry of justice , and rose to the rank of a senior state counsel in 1968. He joined the bench and retired as president of the court of appeal. His appointment as head of ICPC , which came shortly after his retirement was hailed by many. Nuhu Ribadu, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC at a time Justice Akanbi ran ICPC said “I remember him as an upright gentleman, astute jurist and a passionate patriot who put his best in efforts to tackle corruption monster in Nigeria”.

He demonstrated a great deal of maturity and good understanding of his mandate. Under him, the Commission established anti-corruption units in various government offices, thus quietly spreading the anti-corruption crusade and starting the model now named whistle blowing, without the fan fair. Justice Akanbi was held in high esteem by all and sundry, many of who viewed his behaviour to be as immaculate as the colour of his trademark beard in old age.

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