Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of Public Property, headed by Chief Okoi Obono-Obla is talking tough over its assignment to sanitise the system in the coming year.
Obla said the panel is currently investigating how some public officers acquired national assets worth billions of naira.
The recently panel announced the recovery of 86 exotic vehicles in a warehouse belonging to a director in the Federal government bureaucracy following an intelligence tip-off.
Giving an insight into the panel’s work plan in the coming year, Obla said it would move decisively against those suspected to have illegally acquired pubic assets in consonance with the power of the panel to carry out “investigation of the assets of public officers believed to have corruptly enriched themselves or who have contributed towards the economic adversity of the country.”
He said the panel is determined to “recover public assets believed to “have been appropriated, stolen and misappropriated over the years by public officers.”
He noted that the panel was able to achieve some modest achievements in the outgoing year after revving the engine of the panel which had been comatose for years.
“Since the structure of the Panel was in a state coma and limbo for several years, we had to start all over after the Panel was constituted in August 2017.
“The Constitution of the Special Presidential Investigation Panel For the Recovery of Public Property is the last ditch effort of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to fight the cankerworm known as corruption, which has deeply eaten into the fabric of Nigerian society,” he stated.
He added: Notwithstanding the teething infrastructural, administrative, logistical and financial problems that confronted and grappled the Panel, the Panel has recorded some modest achievements, notably the recovery of 86 exotic, luxurious and flashy vehicles in a warehouse belonging to a director in the Federal Government bureaucracy in Jabi Abuja following an intelligent tip.
“The panel was constituted in August 2017 pursuant to the provisions of the Recovery of Public Property (Special Provisions) Cap R4 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. It is one of the oldest anti-corruption legislation in country.”