BY Ola Ajayi

IBADAN—THE Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has set up a special task force to investigate alleged illegal deduction of N599 million between 2006 and 2010 from the statutory allocations of six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Chairman of ICPC, Mr. Ekpo Nta, who disclosed this at a town hall meeting in Ibadan yesterday, said the alleged deduction by FCT Administration was alien to Section 7(1) of the Monitoring of Revenue Allocation to Local Governments Act of 2005.

To unravel the illegal deduction, he said the special task force would beam its searchlight on illegal deductions from statutory allocations to local government councils across the country. The investigation, according to the ICPC boss, will begin with the six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Represented by the Head of Public Enlightenment of the commission, Mike Sewo, the ICPC boss said: “The general perception across the country is that most of our local government councils have not succeeded in bringing the dividends of democracy to their people.

“While this may be true, the ICPC is aware of certain factors that have been hindering the performance of these councils and have set in motion some measures that have started yielding results.

“Due to widespread reports and petitions on illegal deductions from statutory allocations of local councils across the country, a task force to investigate these complaints has been set up starting with Abuja.

“Following the discovery, the commission intervened and ordered that such illegal deductions be stopped while the money so deducted is returned to the coffers of the affected councils.”

He called for the support of all Nigerians to ensure the success of the exercise, and lamented that the delay in the prosecution of suspects by the judiciary was not helping the commission in the fight against corruption.
Nta advised that for corruption to be completely rooted out of the country, all hands must be on deck.