Two ‘corrupt’ ICPC board members to step down

Maimuna Aliyu and Sa’ad Alanamu, the two board members of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission (ICPC) who are undergoing investigation for corruption will resign their appointments any moment from now.

A presidential source disclosed this to TheCable on Saturday.

“The two ICPC commissioners reported to be under investigation will be stepping down and won’t be members of the commission anymore,” the source said.

ICIR, an investigative website, had reported that the ICPC is currently probing Aliyu and Alanamu for alleged corruption in the region of N1billion.

While Alanamu is reportedly being investigated on corruption charges allegedly committed when he headed some institutions in Kwara state, Aliyu is said to have a longstanding case of abuse of office, misappropriation and diversion of public funds against her.

On Tuesday, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo approved the replacement of Nta Ekpo, chairman of the commission, with Bolaji Owasanoye, a professor of law.

He also endorsed the appointment of 14 members -including the two indicted officials – into the board of the agency.

ICIR said charges were already being prepared against Aliyu in preparation of taking her to court when her new appointment was made public.

“Aliyu is said to be highly connected in the corridors of power and might have used her clout to get nominated to the ICPC board to stop her prosecution by the commission,” the website had said in its report.

“Apart from the ICPC investigation, our investigations also show that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Police have investigated several corruption cases against Aliyu, a former executive director of the Aso Savings and Loans.”

The report added that in May, a police investigative report indicted her and recommended her for prosecution.

The investigative report dated May 31, 2017, and signed by Taiwo Oyewale, a superintendent of police, for the deputy commissioner of police, IGP monitoring unit, said that Aliyu illegally converted to personal use a total of N58 million being proceeds of three plots of land belonging to her employers, Aso Savings and Loans.

As executive director, marketing, Aliyu was said to have got approval to sell three of the bank’s landed property in Abuja at the rate of N19 million each.

She reportedly sold the lands for N58 million but refused to hand over the money to the bank.

The police investigations commenced after Aso Savings and Loans wrote a petition in November 2016 alleging that Aliyu, who had by then retired from the bank for three years, had refused to hand over the proceeds of the land sale.

The same month, the bank also wrote a petition against her to the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the EFCC and the ICPC

In one of the investigations, it was discovered that Aliyu actually sold the three plots of land entrusted to her by the bank at N40 million each (instead of N19 million) totaling N120 million and held on to every penny.

Apart from the N120 million allegedly misappropriated by her, the bank also lodged several complaints of abuse of office and conversion or diversion of its funds, totaling nearly N1 billion.