How We Rescued Student Who Had Spent 12 Years In The University For Refusing S3xual Advances- ICPC

Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other
related offences Commission (ICPC), Mr Ekpo Nta, revealed at the weekend that
the commission had rescued a female undergraduate of the Ambrose Ali
University, Ekpoma, who had spent 12 years on campus for refusing s3xual
advances, adding that they were working on prosecuting all the officials
involved, Tribune Newspaper reports..

He said the commission had focused its torchlight on the universities,
where it has closed down over 26 illegal degree-awarding institutions and
rescued a number of students being victimised.

“There is also a student at the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka, who had spent eight years in the institution without graduating, as he
was being victimised. We got involved and through us, he graduated.”

Nta also said the commission had uncovered 50 companies
working with the Federal Ministry of Works, which forged tax certificates.

The ICPC boss, who stated this while appearing before the
Senator Victor Lar-led Committee on Committee on Drugs, Narcotics, Financial
Crimes and Anti Corruption, said that 50 out of the 156 major contractors to
the Ministry of Works had been discovered to have submitted forged tax
certificates.

He said the development would have robbed the Tertiary
Education Trust Fund (TETFund) of its needed resources if the deal was not
uncovered.

He also said the commission had so far uncovered 45,000
ghost workers and saved the Federal Government N100 billion.

Nta also explained that the commission had been able to
track some Nigerians who specialised in cloning official passports, adding the
375 international passports had so far been seized.

He said: “We have seized official passports meant for top
civil servants being used by traders. We have done serious work on that. I have
seized about 375 international passports which we have published.”

Nta further said: “We have gone into direct intervention
with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), most of the big companies that
do business for government have not been paying correct taxes or have been
using forged documents.

On the ghost workers, he said that the commission had
collaborated with the Ministry of Finance to uncover them.

He said: “Of course, you know what we have done in the
Ministry of Finance on the issue of ghost workers, where over 45,000 ghost
workers were discovered and over a N100 billion saved.

“We have a robust relationship with the FIRS and have
actually jailed some of its staff who were not doing the right thing and of
course, we work hand in hand with the Bureau for Public Procurement now.”

He said that in collaboration with the United Nations Office
on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) , his commission had installed a tracking device,
which would make monitoring of agencies and institutions easier.

He said that while the commission had defended 24 cases
successfully, it had also secured 12 convictions out of the 60 cases it
prosecuted in 2014.