Daily Trust - the online edition

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo

Obasanjo, who left office in May 2007 after eight years in power, is facing many allegations of corruption, the most recent being accusations of mismanaging billions of naira meant for power projects.

ICPC’s Resident Consultant on Media and Events Folu Olamiti said yesterday in a statement in Abuja that the Special Unit of the Commission was “studying and analysing” a petition calling for the probe of the former president. He did not, however, give details of the allegations being investigated.

Olamiti quoted ICPC Chairman Justice Emmanuel Ayoola as saying about the probe of the former president that “As far as we are concerned, nobody should feel offended if investigated. It is what the laws say that we will do. It is misconception to look at the status of a person and conclude that you are not going to investigate him.”

In November last year, the EFCC said it would investigate a petition against Obasanjo by the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders. The group had accused Obasanjo of using his eight-year reign in office to corruptly enrich himself. It asked the EFCC to look into how Obasanjo raised money to revive his Temperance Farm in Ota and to engage in a massive construction work at the Bells University of Technology, Badagry, Lagos State. The group also asked EFCC to investigate the former president’s controversial library project in Abeokuta, Ogun State, and the Petroleum Technology Development Fund.

Also last year, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) raised series of allegations of corruption against the former president, and asked the EFCC to investigate.

Ayoola also said the ICPC would in the next two weeks release the list of former state governors having cases of corruption to answer.

“We are looking at the files,” he said. “They are 20 or 23 of the former state governors. I believe that in the next two weeks we will know which of them are to be investigated or not. Some of them are already being prosecuted for Money laundering. Money laundering is not in our mandate”.

Ayoola said that the ICPC Act empowered the commission to go after former state governors once they lost their immunity. “We don’t need an Independent Counsel to investigate and prosecute them,” he said.

Many former governors have so far been charged of corruption by ICPC’s sister agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). ICPC also received petitions against some former governors.

Ayoola said, “We are scrutinizing the files to see whether there are cases that we could now pursue. Many of these allegations were committed as far back as 2003.We need to see which of these allegations are motivated for election purposes.

“For this category of people, we don’t need an Independent Counsel. But we have one or two petitions against serving state governors. It is not our responsibilities to appoint Independent Counsel. What the law says is when we come across such petitions we should pass them to the Chief Justice of the Nigeria who has the mandate to appoint Independent Counsel.

“The Chief Justice will study the allegations and consider whether it is worthwhile to appoint Independent Counsel to investigate those allegations.

When the Independent Counsel investigates, he does not prosecute. He reports to the legislature. It is for the legislature to take over from there.”

On the pending corruption case against former Senate President Adolphus Wabara, Ayoola said, “I think it is unfair to keep a person under of that kind of suspense but the challenge is for the court. The case is still in court and we just have to wait for the system to perform.”