CSOs ,Constituents head to Court over Conspiracy between Senator Utazi and ICPC

Monday afternoon,was thrown into rowdiness when a constituent and renowned Civil Society actor challaged Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the approval of sharing of items sealed off at Village of Senator Chuka Utazi representing Enugu North Senatorial Zone.

Onyewuchi Igboke – a constituent – and others had accused the agency of wrongdoing over the approved distribution of items worth over N117 million found in a property allegedly belonging to Enugu North Senatorial district.

Mr Igboke Onyewuchi was one of the participants at the anti-corruption programme organised by ActionAid Nigeria, with the theme; “Enhancing Citizens’ Effective Participation in the Fight Against Corruption”

He said ICPC had ‘questionably’ given approval to Mr Utazi to hurriedly distribute the seized items on Tuesday as a way of protecting the senator without making the report of their findings open to the public on the reason why the Senator kept this items for long in his village and without any formal communication about the items to his Constituents.

Mr Igboke, who is the project manager, Advocacy Partnership for Good Governance, said Mr Utazi was being shielded because he was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-corruption in the eighth assembly.

“On Thursday, July 31, ICPC discovered items worth N117 million meant to be distributed to constituents by the senator representing my constituency, and the place was sealed up,” he said.

“Surprisingly, the senator has just announced at the weekend that the seized items would be distributed tomorrow, Tuesday, and ICPC has also issued a statement that it would monitor the distribution. We now wonder when the ICPC made the U-turn to unseal what was publicly sealed and which video clips we have obtained.”

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Mr Igboke queried the rationale behind the approval reportedly given by ICPC. We going to challenge both the ICPC and the Senator in the court over undisclosed finding of report of what made the Senator to keep the items since last administration and ICPC for allowing him share the items without any agreed process and procedures by we the Constituents as we lack trust in the fairness of the Senator to share the discovered items.

It will be recalled that the same Senator was alleged to have collected money from Constituents of Enugu North Senatorial Zone for an empowerment scheme which they with nothing show up to this moment. The Civil Society actor said.