The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has refused to name the hospital or persons involved in the contract scam, in which an unnamed hospital was paid for five times without being built.
The chairman of ICPC, Dr Musa Aliyu, said in February that the commission had uncovered massive corruption, where some (unnamed) government officials paid 100% fees for a hospital project that had never been built.
The ICPC chairman said the most troubling part of the corruption was that the officials ensured the same project was paid for multiple times without ever building one hospital.
A LEADERSHIP investigation discovered that even though the project was paid for five times, there was no sign of it starting anywhere in the country.
However, when LEADERSHIP tried to get the ICPC chairman to name the hospital, he declined.
Several inquiries, calls, discussions, and text messages were made to the ICPC to get details of the hospital contract, but they didn’t yield any results.
A message sent to his phone number read, “Good afternoon, sir. My name is Ejike Ejike. I write for LEADERSHIP Newspapers. Please, could you also tell us the name of the hospital where payments were made five times without building, sir? Thank you.” The ICPC did not reply to the message.
Also, on April 3, at the ICPC’s stakeholders’ meeting on ACPP-LG, the ICPC was asked to elaborate on the hospital contract issue and name those involved; the chairman declined to comment.
Also, when LEADERSHIP contacted the ICPC spokesperson, Demola Bakare, he said the chairman would be in the best position to provide details on the subject.
However, a source at the ICPC told LEADERSHIP that some details are unnecessary for the public to know since the anti-graft agency is working to recover the funds.
The source said the ICPC had traced the suspects involved in such crimes and was working seriously to recover all funds paid for the project.
Though ICPC did not confirm whether it was prosecuting the culprits, our source said it was focused on recovering the money.
Dr Aliyu recently said that the above case was only one of the many instances of endemic corruption in the country and that it must not be allowed to continue.
“All of us should join hands to tackle corruption in this country. Fighting corruption is not easy because when you fight corruption, corruption fights back. Those involved in corruption are united in their evil.
They try to lie against us to discredit what we are doing. However, as a nation, all well-meaning public members must join in tackling corruption.
“We don’t have an option. If we don’t tackle corruption, our children will have no future. If we don’t fight corruption, those involved will wreck the economy, and we will all suffer for it,” he said.
Meanwhile, several attempts to speak with the chairman of the Senate Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Senator Emmanuel Udende, as of 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, were unsuccessful.
When our Correspondent dialled Senator Udende’s line, the response was, ‘The number you’re trying to call is not reachable.”
