By Isaac Aregbesola
THE INDEPENDENT Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) has warned against undermining the Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy.
The ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Aliyu, gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Aliyu spoke on the side-lines of the 6th General Assembly of the Network of National Anti-corruption Instructions in West Africa (NACIWA) in Abuja.
NAN reports that the Supreme Court had on July 11 granted local governments across the country autonomy.
“As you know, the issue of local government autonomy, the Supreme Court has already spoken that local government must be democratically governed.
“For any person at the state level to breach that decision is gross misconduct, which is an abuse of office. We at ICPC, we are going after anybody that goes against the decision of the Supreme Court on issue of local government autonomy.”
NAN reports that Aliyu earlier at the event identified corruption as a borderless crime that required concerted efforts of nations.
He also maintained that the objectives and guiding principles of NACIWA gave hope and confidence and an indication of readiness to tackle corruption by member nations.
“I would like to state here that there are little or no new laws in the fight against corruption; it is just a matter of implementation. I, therefore, use this medium to emphasise the need to step up the fight against corruption via the instrumentality of digitalisation.
“Effective use of technology and digital tools will assist anti-corruption operatives in the onerous task of taming this monster and dismantling the corruption networks,” he said.
According to him, the sophisticated nature that corruption has assumed regionally and globally calls for innovations, strategising and collaboration.
“To this end, NACIWA must embrace the use of technology and digital devices in the implementation of the ECOWAS PROTOCOL to tackle the menace of corruption in our sub-region and in our individual countries.’’
The ICPC boss also stressed the importance of sharing knowledge and intelligence as well as training on the knowledge gap in the fight against corruption in the sub region.
“As I have pointed out, the fight against corruption is not a tea party; it requires the active collaboration of all; NACIWA nations must share knowledge and intelligence since what affects one has the potential to affect others.
“I hereby advise that the time is right for NACIWA to consider bringing anti-corruption practitioners in our different jurisdictions together for training and exchanging ideas.
“This is a veritable means of closing the knowledge gap between us and ultimately being able to dismantle the corruption gangs in our sub-region,” he said. (NAN)
