Oyo State Acting Governor, Barrister Bayo Lawal, has assured that the administration of Governor ‘Seyi Makinde will continue to collaborate with relevant anti-graft agencies to fight corruption practices in the state.
The Acting Governor stated this on Tuesday while receiving the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu (SAN), who paid a condolence visit to the state government on the demise of the former chairman of the Commission, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola (rtd).
Justice Ayoola passed on recently aged 90 years.
Barrister Lawal described the late jurist, who was one of the earliest to head ICPC, as an outstanding indigene of the state and a jurist of international repute.
He noted that the late Ayoola contributed immensely to the growth and development of the country and the commission through his dedication, hard work, uncompromised integrity and ability to act and stand for the truth in the interest of justice.
He added that the Oyo State government has also established the Oyo State Anti-Corruption Agency (OYACA) headed by Honourable Justice Eni Esan (rtd) to reduce corruption in the state’s Civil/Public Service.
He called for collaboration between ICPC and the state’s anti-corruption agency.
Lawal said: “We really appreciate you for your thoughtfulness to pay this kind of condolence visit to Oyo State on the demise of our outstanding indigene; somebody who contributed immensely to the Judiciary in Nigeria.
“We appreciate his contribution to the growth and development of Judiciary in Nigeria.
“He had served in various capacities, rising from the High Court to Court of Appeal and to the Supreme Court of Nigeria and he retired meritoriously.
“When he retired, we said he should go and rest but Nigeria decided to invite him again to continue to serve. The mantle of leadership of ICPC was given to him.
“When you are talking of integrity and commitment, he stood out. As you said in your short remarks, Justice Ayoola (rtd) and a few people laid the solid foundation on which subsequent leaderships of the Commission would continue to operate on.
“I have to congratulate you as well. We have no doubt in your capacity.
“Let me also inform you that this administration decided to establish Oyo State Anti-Corruption Agency (OYACA).
We have complementary efforts in OYACA, ICPC and can collaborate and work together. These are establishments that are meant to rid our society of corruption and I think, moving forward, the results are coming out, especially those in government establishments.
“As a government, we are open and ready to collaborate with your Commission to assist in whichever way you may deem fit.”
Earlier in his speech, the ICPC chairman, Aliyu (SAN), condoled with the government and the people of Oyo State, saying the ex-ICPC chairman laid a solid foundation for the Commission and contributed to the issues of human rights and other related matters.
According to ICPC boss, the use of local languages in preaching against corruption is aimed at educating as well as galvanising Nigerians on the need to fight corruption.
Beyond demands for wanton prosecutions, Aliyu said the ICPC was keener on prevention, whereby Nigerians are sensitised on the importance of shunning corrupt acts.
He said: “There is also the issue of public enlightenment where we are trying to galvanise Nigerians, to educate them, to show them that we need to fight this corruption. And in due course, we are trying to go into states to sensitise Nigerians about corruption, most especially in the major languages.
“We have prosecuted some people but I think the prosecution is not the most important. The most important is for us to try to see how we can prevent the issue of corruption in this country and we have been doing that.”
Speaking on the other mandates of the commission, Aliyu said the ICPC has come up with an Anti-Sexual Harassment Policy for tertiary institutions, to deal with sexual harassment in the nation’s ivory towers.
He said the ICPC was presently prosecuting issues relating to sexual harassment, while it was eliminating ghost workers on the payroll of the federal government.
Aliyu said: “At ICPC, we have system and study review, whereby we try to look at where there are loopholes so as to block them. We did a lot and we recovered a lot of money; we also blocked leakages.
One area where we are doing great is the area of ghost workers, whereby we are trying to see that we rid the payroll of the federal government of ghost workers, and we have done so much in that area.
“Another area I have focused on is the issue of sexual harassment especially in tertiary institutions. I am sure you are aware of the prosecutions we are doing now of senior academic facing trial at Abuja.
And we had an engagement with stakeholders in the tertiary institutions last month whereby we discuss the problem of sexual harassment in our tertiary institutions and we have come up with policy on how to tackle it which we know is a serious challenge.
“In the area of constituency and budgetary project tracking whereby we are trying to see that the constituency projects that are budgeted, those that are supposed to execute them do so in the way they are designed and ensure that there is full implementation so that we will block all other issues that may come out of that.”
In attendance at the courtesy visit were the Attorney-General/Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Biodun Aikomo; Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade and the Executive Assistant to the Governor on Security, CP Sunday Odukoya (rtd).
Also in attendance were the Secretary, ICPC, Mr Clifford Oparaodu Esq and the Oyo State ICPC Commissioner, Mr Lucky Erewa, among others.