ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Following a N350 million allegation levelled against the former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) has ordered the former police boss to pay back N145.2 million to the treasury.
The order came just as the commission cleared Okiro, who is the current Chairman of the Police Service Commission, of the corruption allegation.
Investigation by the Tribune Online revealed that the Police Service Commission (PSC) received the sum of N350 million from the Federal Government to monitor the conduct of police personnel at the recently conducted general elections.
It was revealed that the PSC also planned to use the money for training of 900 staff and planned to conduct training in Abuja, Lagos and Kano.
However, about 391 of the staff of the commission got trained in a programme held in Abuja only.
Also, based on reports by the ICPC, the Police Service Commission paid DTA to all staff including those based in Abuja that participated in the training programme held within Abuja.
Air-Ticket and DTA were paid to management staff and others who monitored elections within Abuja and its environs; even at locations were airports do not exist such as Lokoja and Minna.
It further confirmed that Okiro collected five days each for two conferences that ran simultaneously in Dublin, Ireland and Orlando, Florida, United States, but discovered that he spent 10 days on the trip.
“Though, he only expended the ticket-fare for Abuja-Durblin-Abuja, he has however, written to the Presidency to expend the ticket-fare for Abuja-Orlando-Abuja on another trip coming up by October.
“The investigation has not revealed any act of criminal infraction against the person of Mike Mbama Okiro, the Chairman of the Police Service Commission as all issues outlined above are administrative in nature and within the ambits of career public servants handlings.
“Consequently, this commission hereby direct as follows; “that the total balance of N133,413,845.99 from the N350,000,000 2015 election monitoring exercise domiciled within a bank be remitted to the federaltTreasury through the ICPC Recovery Account No. 1012929790 at Zenith Bank Plc.
“That, the staff of your commission who took part in the 2015 general elections monitoring exercise and were paid two-way return ticket and airport taxi to location within PCT and states of close proximity to Abuja amounting to N11,750,000 should refund same to the treasury through the ICPC Recovery Account No. 1012929790 at Zenith Bank Plc.
“That, if the Presidency approves of the utilisation of the application by the chairman to utilise the Abuja-Orlando-Abuja airfare for an upcoming conference, we will consider the matter.
“However, if approval is refused, this thereof should be returned to the Police Service Commission and ICPC so informed,” ICPC said
Credit: Tribune (Nigeria)
