ICPC commences investigation of bribery allegation against Reps C’ttee on job racketeering

The ICPC has commenced investigation into bribery allegations against the House of Representatives Committee on job racketeering and gross mismanagement in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Azuka Ogugua, spokesperson for Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said this in a statement on Friday in Abuja. Ogugua said that the ICPC received petitions from an online medium, Premium Times Nigeria; and Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, Chairman of the ad hoc committee, to investigate bribery allegations against the probe panel. The online medium published a story alleging that some members of the committee requested vice chancellors and heads of tertiary institutions to pay certain amounts to an account as bribes. The story also claimed that the account was dedicated for the purpose of giving a soft landing to any institutions’ that would pay the bribe money into it during the investigation. Members of the committee were also said to have engaged in extortion from heads of MDAs, including those of academic institutions. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gagdi had on Thursday said the committee wrote to ICPC to investigate the allegations of bribery and extortion against the members of the committee. The chairman said that the committee had written to ICPC to investigate the account number allegedly released to heads of tertiary institutions for payment of the bribe. “I have already written to the ICPC to investigate the account number that was published by an online medium the owner of that account, whether there is any transaction by vice chancellors and rectors of polytechnic in the country.” Gagdi threatened that the committee would take legal action against the online medium over the publication, which aim, he said, was to “blackmail and discredit” the committee.