Inside Nigeria
Clear your name, ICPC tells Obono-Obla
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has asked the suspended Chairman of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), Okoi Obono-Obla, to appear before it and clear his name.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, ICPC Spokesperson, Rasheedat Okoduwa, said the former presidential aide resorted to propaganda against the commission instead of turning himself in.
Mr Obono-Obla is on the ICPC wanted list for alleged corruption and abuse of office.
The anti-graft agency declared him wanted in October following his alleged repeated failure to honour the commission’s invitations.
However, he has reportedly denied the allegations and dismissed the action of the ICPC as an attempt to ridicule and embarrass him.
He is said to have also denied being invited by the ICPC for questioning before he was declared wanted.
Mrs Okoduwa said the commission was aware that the former presidential aide was back in the country, and was even sighted at an event recently.
“We are aware that Obono-Obla has returned to the county, and everything he has been saying about the commission and its chairman.
“He is reportedly going about saying ICPC is a rival office to his own. I have people calling me to react on what he has said.
“The decent thing is for the gentleman to come to ICPC to clear his name. We have given him an opportunity to clear his name of the allegations against him.
“Come forward, let us hear your own side of the story. We have done our investigations and have facts. We want to confront him with these facts,” she said.
She added that the commission had alerted security agencies to pick him up when seen to enable him to clear the air.
“Signals have been sent to all the law enforcement agencies. Whenever they see him I am sure they will pick him up,” she added.
(NAN)