By Ben Agande
Abuja— Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and other Offences Commission, ICPC, Mr. Ekpo Nta, said, yesterday, the anti-graft agency recovered over N8 billion and 124 vehicles from government officials in 2016.

Ekpo Nta

Speaking with journalists during an interactive session in Abuja,  Nta said during the period under review, the commission was able to freeze N6 billion from the Sure-P funds which ware illegally diverted.

According to him, the commission received a total of 1,569 petitions against government agencies and other private sector practitioners on cases of corruption.

Giving a breakdown of monies recovered by the commission in the year under review, the ICPC boss gave the figure as N6 billion; N698,450,000; N292,013,150; N1,694,397,275; and N20,890,000, bringing the total to N8,705,750,426 billion.

He said of the amount, N6 billion, was frozen in Infrastructure Bank, while N668,593,621 was refunded to the Kano State government as its share of Sure-P funds.

He said the balance of the fund was proceeds of extortion of Nigerian students by university authorities.

He said of 70 cases filed in court by the commission, it secured 11 convictions, even as it was pursuing a total of 303 cases in court in various states of the federation.

Nta said it recovered 124 vehicles from directors and other officials, who converted project vehicles in the Sure-P programme to their personal use, while some of the vehicles recovered by the commission had been returned to the ministries where they were removed.

He said the commission was working hard to institutionalize the fight against corruption by ensuring that institutions were strengthened to reduce the perpetration of corrupt practices.

“The anti-corruption process of the ICPC is designed to reach more far reaching results than just chasing people who have stolen money,” he said.

He said the commission had developed an apps, Wahala De, to ensure an easy interaction between members of the public on the fight against corruption.