HURIWA charges ICPC, EFCC to recover looted funds

A pro-democracy and non-governmental organisation, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has expressed doubts over the ability of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to prosecute and retrieve looted funds from some former governors whose investigation was announced yesterday by the commission.

The four governors are former governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers, Sullivan Chime of Enugu, Ibrahim Shema of Katsina and Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano.

HURIWA said, “ICPC does not have illustrious antecedence of any high profile loot retrieval land mark achievements over the past decade, even when corruption has cost Nigeria billions of public fund stolen and diverted into private offshore bank accounts by former governors.”

The rights group added that ICPC announced that it has commenced investigations of four former governors following petition against them.

A statement issued by the National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, asked the Federal Government to set up a strong team of investigators to be drawn from both ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) alongside a group of forensic investigators from Transparency International (TI) or United Nations to handle these sensitive matters and retrieve the amounts allegedly diverted by the former governors.

HURIWA said, “the era of ceremonial anti-graft campaigns should be over, given the emerging zeal of the Muhammadu Buhari administration, which anchored it’s political and economic agenda on anti-graft crusade.”