The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has confirmed its readiness to reintroduce sting operations in the nation’s ports to sanitise the sector.
The ICPC Chairman, Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, who made this known when a delegation from Convention on Business Integrity (CBI), paid him a courtesy visit at the Commission’s headquarters, in Abuja, expressed happiness with the results from the previous similar operations.
He promised that the Commission will continue to partner with the CBI operatives, and give all the necessary support to sanitise the ports because the country needs business and foreign direct investment to come into the country.
“I am happy that some countries are now yearning to replicate this thing. Nigeria as a country has many good people. ICPC will continue to partner with you and support you because we need businesses and foreign direct investments to come into this country. We have to continue to partner to sanitise the ports. The fight is a collective fight by all of us.”
The leader of the delegation, Soji Apampa recalled that after meeting with ICPC in 2019, to discuss issues around the Nigeria’s ports, the Commission in collaboration with some other agencies, immediately swung into action through a sting operation which was very effective and led to increased productivity and efficiency over the years.
“In 2019 we recorded 266 cases of demands of large unreceipted cash payments in dollars. Because of the sting operation by ICPC, this fell to 128 incidents. At first, we thought it was because of COVID that the officials are too scared. But the following year it came down to 84 cases. The year after that, it fell to only 48 and last year was 45 cases. “So, we can see that year in, year out, it continues to fall. Productivity and efficiency have gone up as a result of all these.”
Apampa said that because of this achievement, countries like Egypt, Ukraine and India are now working to replicate the Nigerian “miracle.
“We have also introduced it to Ghana, Senegal and Togo and the sentiment around the world is that if Nigeria can produce something that leads to change, then it is worthy of emulation. People are happy. We are receiving requests for support.”
Apampa appealed to the ICPC boss to continue to partner with them to amplify this achievement in various world fora considering the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) which consistently shows Nigeria as though nothing is happening.
