Head of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, Professor
\nBolaji Owasanoye, has been urged to be a good ambassador of the legal
\nprofession by ensuring court proceedings are not falsified or
\nmisrepresented on the Commission’s official news handle. Owasanoye,
\nwho is a 1984 second class upper graduate of Law from the University
\nof Ife, is now a professor of law.
\nMaking this call, a broadcast industry watcher, Dr. Yemi Anthony,
\nnoted that the commission, under the watch of a legal luminary, is
\nalready flaunting the law by misleading the public, on its website, by
\ndistorting court proceedings. According to him, this sacrilegious as
\nthe head of the organization is someone at home with court processes
\nbeing a professor of law. He noted further that what the ICPC reels
\nout each after court sittings in the ongoing Nigeria Broadcasting
\nCommission (NBC) trial is often fraught with inaccuracies. Anthony
\nstressed that there is a variance between what really takes place in
\nthe court and what is churned out to the public from where many news
\noutlets pick their stories. He said, “part of the rule of law is not
\nto engage in media trial but where such matters had to be brought to
\npublic knowledge, it must at least be accurate. A situation where
\ndaily proceedings of courts are twisted and stuff added to them to
\nsway the public, justice will not have been served. I expect a
\nprofessor of law to be that thorough in ensuring accuracies.”<\/p>\n
Citing an example, Anthony noted that former minister of Information,
\nAlhaji Lai Mohammed, has never said he was misled in paying Pinnacle
\nCommunications Limited (PLC), noting that this is the impression the
\ncommission has painted through its reporting on its official news
\nhandle. He said, “the minister couldn’t have said he was misled.
\nMisled into payments by who? His ministry staffs?\u00a0 Lai Mohammed
\napproved the payment to Pinnacle communications because the work was
\nsatisfactorily done and he even participated in commissioning them. At
\nwhat point could he have been misled? The payments followed all the
\nprocess. If you said why should they pay a private organization, then
\nwhat about the other company that was duly paid too? Pinnacle
\ncommunications did the same work with another company, they were paid
\ntoo and no word has been heard about it but it’s PCL that is being
\nhounded. In fact, when this came up, ICPC said it is not prosecuting
\nthe other company.”<\/p>\n
Anthony said Professor Uwasanoye has a duty to ensure that justice is
\ndone in the matter as his appointment ab initio was to clean the
\nAugean stable. He said, “the Professor must not allow himself to be
\nused. ICPC today must be made to resemble ICPC of the past. The coming
\nof the new team was seen as a shot in the arm for the Commission. So
\nnothing should distract it. Trying to be sensational and attract the
\nmedia may eventually hurt its credibility.”<\/p>\n
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n