Investigate Lagos Councils’ Alleged Stealing Of N224m, SERAP Asks ICPC

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A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has asked the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr Ekpo Nta to “urgently and transparently investigate allegations of corruption in Lagos State Councils and to bring to justice suspected perpetrators.”

The petition followed a government audit of 57 local councils in Lagos State, which allegedly indicted eight councils of stealing and mismanaging at least N224 millions of public funds on a range of questionable expenditures and unimplemented contracts.

In the petition dated November 24 2014, and signed by SERAP Senior Staff Counsel, Olukayode Majekodunmi, the group expressed “serious concern about the content of 2012 government audit report and the inability of the government to fully and effectively address the issues raised by the report.”

The group also said that, “Large-scale corruption exposes majority of the citizens to a “double jeopardy”.

According to the group, “The allegations also constitute grave breaches of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Act 2000 and the UN Convention against Corruption which Nigeria has ratified.”

The group also urged Mr Nta to use his leadership position to ensure that the allegations are fully and transparently investigated, and that the findings of the investigation are made public.

“The audit assessment reportedly accused the following Local Councils of wasting public funds: Agbado Oke –Odo, Surulere, Coker-Aguda, Egbe-Idimu, Eredo, Iba, Ikosi-Isheri and Lagos Island East.

“The report also established cases of corrupt practices and other cases of financial recklessness in Eti Osa, Mainland and Somolu and some other local councils failed to remit statutory deductions from contracts awarded to the tune of N40.9m,” the group said.