By Halima Babali

The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye has fingered public sector corruption by high-ranking personalities, corrupt judges and military contractors are contributors to the challenges of insecurity in the country.

Prof. Owasanoye, who confirmed that the insecurity situation in the country was real and consolidating, noted this on Friday in Abuja in his welcome address at the National Policy Dialogue and Insecurity in Nigeria organised by the anti-grant agency at the ICPC Auditorium in Abuja.

The ICPC boss noted that "Nigeria’s worsening insecurity challenges and the resulting impact on the Nigerian state, her economy and her image, continue to be cause of grave concern to Nigerians."

He noted that these challenges have become of particular interest to leaders in the three arms of government, state institutions, scholars, anticorruption practitioners and the general populace.

Citing a recent Business Day publication of May 20, 2022, with report that Nigeria’s Military spending rose from USD2.4Bn in 2020 to USD4.5Bn in 2021, Owasanoye said this indicates that strengthening the security services, especially the military to beef up security against internal threats has been a matter of very high national priority to the government.

The national policy dialogue was convened to broaden thinking on causative factors, enabling factors and policy gaps that weaken the country’s capacity to decisively and conclusively eradicate insecurity from within her borders.

To interrogate issues of National interest especially those that require improvements in policy making or policy implementation; To create an opportunity for multi-sectoral interaction on the focal issues being considered, get expert contributions through ideas and presentations that can enrich research findings on the issues and Make appropriate recommendations to policy makers to consider.

He highlighted the objectives of the dialogue to identifying the drivers of corruption-induced and corruption-enhanced insecurity in Nigeria; internal mechanisms within agencies that can enhance capacity for fighting corruption; system-wide approaches for institutionalising anti-corruption and corruption prevention measures; and finally to recommend approaches for tackling corruption-induced insecurity in Nigeria.

Prof. Owasanoye however underscored the linkage between corruption as root cause of insecurity, noting that the resolution must not only be limited to military response at is often insinuated on the face value.

“At face value, insecurity is seen to be, and is sometimes treated as a matter requiring only a military response or reaction, but an in depth look into its possible root cause(s) shows that corruption is a major contributory factor to the continued existence and propagation of insecurity in the country.

“In fact, a clinical diagnosis of the insecurity menace in the country reveals that to effectively combat insecurity, we require the collaborative efforts of Security Agencies (the military, intelligence, Police, Customs, Prisons, others), as well as Law Enforcement and Anti-Corruption Agencies," he said.

He noted that research and investigation findings by the agency on the subject matter, direct and indirect public sector corruption are enablers of insecurity, and can sometimes complement it.

Speaking further, the ICPC boss also cited cases of job racketeering and military contract spending, many of which he disclosed are under the agency's investigation.

“There are also ongoing investigations into military contracts spending. Recently, ICPC arrested a military contractor that received over a period of less than ten years cumulative sum of about N6 Billion from the Nigerian Army in suspicious circumstances and in violation of extant legislation.

“The Commission’s recovery of huge cash sums in local and foreign currencies, luxury cars, customized mobile phones, designer watches including three Rolexes as well as property documents from the premises of the contractor underscore the corruption that often attend military procurement.

“Some former military and security personnel are being investigated by ICPC and our sister agency for embezzlement of funds allocated to security. For example, a former head of one of the arms of the military in the twilight of his tenure deposited the sum of N4 billion from military budget into the accounts of two companies where he is beneficial owner and sole signatory.

“The proceeds were used to purchase properties in Abuja in the names of cronies and proxies. Some of the properties paid for by his service were also fraudulently converted to his use," Owafioye said.

He however expressed sadness over frustration by a recently retired High Court judge of the ICPC’s prosecution of a high ranking officer to recover all the implicated assets.

He said another case under investigation is theft of part of special intervention fund approved for security operations by some civil servants in the line ministry who transferred about N1 billion to 4 shell companies.

"A special investigative team under the leadership of NSA and ICPC recovered some of the diverted assets including state of the art building located in Abuja and over N220 million cash. Investigation in this matter is still on going.

“Funds to retool and reposition the police to a world class institution is no less threatened by corruption. The newly established police special intervention framework designed to eliminate underfunding of the police, the Police Trust Fund, is already under ICPC investigation for abuse, fund diversion bogus, questionable welfare packaging that is not for the police who are the beneficiaries of the fund and sundry corrupt practices. One may safely conclude that other security agencies are dogged by similar practices albeit to varying degrees."

He expressed the worries of the commission on why increased funding to the security sector by President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly has not translated into commensurate effectiveness in the was against insurgency and insecurity in the past 7 years despite the gallant and sacrificial effort of Nigerian soldiers, policemen and other security operatives working daily to secure Nigerians.

"Experts have attributed the aggravation of insecurity partially to misapplication and misappropriation of funds in the defence sector procurement practices. Investigations by anti corruption agencies will seem to bear this out. What is worse is that soldiers are often reported in social media of complaining of being poorly-equipped and poorly motivated.

“These challenges can be partly traced to the revelation by the Centre for Democracy and Development, (CDD) that about $15billion has been squandered through fraudulent arms procurement deals in the last 20 years in the country," the ICPC chief said.

Prof. Bolaji further noted that while ICPC and EFCC are investigating some of these anomalies, efforts of anti-graft agencies will not yield much without proactive prevention measures and a review of extant procurement practices.

he added, that the ICPC, through its research and training arm, convened the policy dialogue, in furtherance of its statutory mandate to prevent corruption by review of the systems, processes and practices of agencies of government and to direct improvement where they predispose to corruption.

“We hope that informed views and contributions from the broad spectrum of stakeholders present here will clear misconceptions and offer new recommendations for dealing with this issue," Owasanoye said.