Shamed over due diligence failure, Osinbajo drops ICPC nominees under probe

Following revelations of alleged involvement in corruption, the federal government has withdrawn the names of Maimuna Aliyu and Sa’ad Alanamu from the list of newly appointed commissioners to the board of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission (ICPC).

This information was made known by Laolu Akande, spokesman to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, on Sunday.

This development is coming after media reports raised pertinent questions about the appointments, revealing the pending cases of corruption against them and questioning the rationale for such a move.

The reports generated widespread condemnation and expression of shock as to the fact that the government failed to do proper checks on the personalities it was appointing to such sensitive positions.

Aliyu is reportedly being investigated for longstanding case of abuse of office, misappropriation and diversion of public funds, while Alanamu is said to be under investigation for acts of corruption allegedly committed when he headed some institutions in Kwara state.

Akande confirmed that the two nominees were being investigated by the ICPC on pending cases of corruption, citing the issue of conflict of interest resulting from this as the main reason for the decision to withdraw their nomination.

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In a series of tweets via his Twitter handle, Akande stated as follows:

“We are stepping down 2 of the new ICPC board nominees who have ongoing investigation issues with the commission as this presents a conflict.

“While existence of allegations or petitions against someone should’nt necessarily disqualify them from considerations for appointments…

“…this case presents a peculiarity as we have confirmed that the agency in which they are to serve is indeed investigating the two of them

“A basic check showed no court convictions against them. But when weighty petitions come up this administration ‘ll always do the right thing”.

Some analysts believe that this is an embarrassing case of basic background check failure. They wonder how it was not immediately discovered that the appointees had serious pending cases of corruption against them and were in fact being investigated by the very commission to which they were being appointed.

They also point to the absence of functional inter-agency cooperation that would throw up aberrations like this before they become a public issue, expressing shock that it took a media report to get the government to reverse course on a matter that should ideally never have arisen.

Some argue that incidents like this point to a deeper problem of a culture of influence peddling, allowing for a situation where appointments are swiftly made to please the powers behind them without any recourse to due diligence.

 

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