Head of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, Professor
Bolaji Owasanoye, has been urged to be a good ambassador of the legal
profession by ensuring court proceedings are not falsified or
misrepresented on the Commission’s official news handle. Owasanoye,
who is a 1984 second class upper graduate of Law from the University
of Ife, is now a professor of law.
Making this call, a broadcast industry watcher, Dr. Yemi Anthony,
noted that the commission, under the watch of a legal luminary, is
already flaunting the law by misleading the public, on its website, by
distorting court proceedings. According to him, this sacrilegious as
the head of the organization is someone at home with court processes
being a professor of law. He noted further that what the ICPC reels
out each after court sittings in the ongoing Nigeria Broadcasting
Commission (NBC) trial is often fraught with inaccuracies. Anthony
stressed that there is a variance between what really takes place in
the court and what is churned out to the public from where many news
outlets pick their stories. He said, “part of the rule of law is not
to engage in media trial but where such matters had to be brought to
public knowledge, it must at least be accurate. A situation where
daily proceedings of courts are twisted and stuff added to them to
sway the public, justice will not have been served. I expect a
professor of law to be that thorough in ensuring accuracies.”
Citing an example, Anthony noted that former minister of Information,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has never said he was misled in paying Pinnacle
Communications Limited (PLC), noting that this is the impression the
commission has painted through its reporting on its official news
handle. He said, “the minister couldn’t have said he was misled.
Misled into payments by who? His ministry staffs? Lai Mohammed
approved the payment to Pinnacle communications because the work was
satisfactorily done and he even participated in commissioning them. At
what point could he have been misled? The payments followed all the
process. If you said why should they pay a private organization, then
what about the other company that was duly paid too? Pinnacle
communications did the same work with another company, they were paid
too and no word has been heard about it but it’s PCL that is being
hounded. In fact, when this came up, ICPC said it is not prosecuting
the other company.”
Anthony said Professor Uwasanoye has a duty to ensure that justice is
done in the matter as his appointment ab initio was to clean the
Augean stable. He said, “the Professor must not allow himself to be
used. ICPC today must be made to resemble ICPC of the past. The coming
of the new team was seen as a shot in the arm for the Commission. So
nothing should distract it. Trying to be sensational and attract the
media may eventually hurt its credibility.”