Nigeria

Constituency projects fraud: Reps summon ICPC chairman over report

Wednesday, December 18, 2019 at 1:18 PM by Nnenna Ibeh

- Members of the House of Representatives have summoned the chairman of ICPC to appear before them

- Bolaji Owasanoye was summoned over a report by ICPC accusing lawmakers of perfecting means of fraudulently pocketing billions of naira under the guise of constituency projects

- The ICPC report said lawmakers duplicate contracts using the same description, same narrative, same amount, same location and awarded by the same agency

Lawmakers of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, December 17, summoned the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Bolaji Owasanoye, over reports of alleged fraudulent in one of its commission's report against them (lawmakers).

The ICPC had in its report accused the lawmakers of perfecting means of fraudulently pocketing billions of naira under the guise of constituency projects.

In its report titled Constituency Projects Tracking Group (CPTG) and signed by Owasanoye, the ICPC said lawmakers used various methods of “stealing public funds” by duplicate contracts using the same description, same narrative, same amount, same location and awarded by the same agency.

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The commission also alleged that the lawmakers insert controversial constituency projects into the budgets termed “capacity building and empowerment projects".

Reacting to the report, the House said the ICPC leadership was making deliberate efforts to ridicule the National Assembly.

Constituency projects fraud: Reps summon ICPC chairman over report — Reps are displeased that ICPC published such a damning report capable of damaging the country's image among comity of nations
Source: Twitter

The lawmaker representing Gboko/Tarka federal constituency, John Dyegh, in a fresh motion, said ICPC report is capable of destroying the image of Nigeria as a nation.

Dyegh said the ICPC from its reports is focused on giving the legislative arm of government a bad name before the international community.

Following the motion, the lawmakers resolved to invite the chairman of ICPC to interact with the Committee on ICPC of the House for proper discussion.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that there was apprehension on Monday, December 16, as lawmakers began the investigation into the alleged disappearance of N14.8 billion at the Nigeria Customs Service.

The lawmakers of the House Committee of public accounts announced the probe into the circumstances leading to the improper audit of the NCS accounts for years.