The proposed anti-graft agency to be mid-wifed from the merger of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) is to be known as Corrupt Practices and Financial Crimes Commission (CPFCC) Pointblanknews.com can authoritatively reveal.<\/p>\n
The federal government had last week approved the merger of both anti-graft agencies. The approval was in line with the recommendations of the Steve Oronsaye-led presidential committee on the rationalisation and restructuring of federal government parastatals, commissions and agencies.<\/p>\n
Presidency sources told Pointblanknews that a bill would soon be sent to the National Assembly seeking to amend the laws setting up ICPC and EFCC.<\/p>\n
Inaugurated on 29 September 2000 by the then president Olusegun Obasanjo.<\/p>\n
ICPC had as pioneer chairman Mustapha Akanbi, a retired judge of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
The incumbent chairman is Ekpo Nta, a lawyer.<\/p>\n
Some prominent Nigerians prosecuted by ICPC include Umar Ghali Na’abba, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, a former minister of education, Fabian Osuji, and Cornelius Adebayo, former governor of old Kwara State and former minister of communications.<\/p>\n
Some political and legal analysts believe that EFCC, which was established by the same Obasanjo two years after ICPC- in 2003, was because the retired Justice Akanbi refused to be used by Obasanjo to hound his political opponents.<\/p>\n
The belief was that the then president decided to find a way around the dilemma by establishing EFCC few months to the 2003 elections and appointing Nuhu Ribadu, an exuberant police officer, as chairman.<\/p>\n
The more dramatic EFCC successfully prosecuted a number of high profile cases, including former police boss Tafa Balogun, advance fee fraudster Emma Nwude, and former governor Lucky Igbinedion, among others.<\/p>\n
The mandate of ICPC to primarily investigate and prosecute corruption by public officers appeared clear cut from EFCC’s mandate to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. Quite embarrassingly, however, both agencies have often been caught investigating the same cases.<\/p>\n
This duplication of functions and the attendant confusion it generated, Pointblanknews.com gathered, triggered the clamour for the merger of both agencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The proposed anti-graft agency to be mid-wifed from the merger of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) is to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n